The play is set in 2077, in a military dictatorship. Everything happens in the cellar of a common citizen – Joan. One day when she comes back from work, she finds Dummy in it. He broke into her apartment by breaking a window, as he was trying to hide from the army. He does not own papers and has been shoplifting to survive. At first, Joan believes that he wants to rob her and asks him to hand her his knife. But Dummy is homeless and undocumented: his knife is his only means of defence. What is more, he is emotionally attached to it. Joan then agrees to feed and hide Dummy. He relates his past and confides that he was forced by soldiers to kill one of his parents. Joan and Dummy call on a smuggler, Jack, who promises to forge papers for Dummy, which would allow him to cross the border. However, the money Dummy was keeping in a box has disappeared. At this point, Jack declares that he has links with the army and threatens to report them. Despite the help Joan offers him (she goes as far as trying to request a loan), Dummy turns down her offer to run away with her: he says he wants to leave with Jack and to continue to steal for a living. Joan’s life has radically changed since meeting Dummy, for whom she says she has sacrificed everything. She does not understand his decision and launches into a xenophobic monologue, during which she inflicts extreme violence on Dummy. She stabs him several times, steps on him and tears him up. At the end of the play, the actor dubbing Dummy’s voice walks among the “debris” of the puppets and speaks in a fictional language.

Actor and puppet

Mannequin

Young audiences

Bond Edward

Great Britain

London

Northampton

Printed

Dystopia

Migrant

Murder

Escape

Money

Foreigner

Dramatic

Tragic

Fantastic

Edward Bond, The Chair Plays, 2012.

English

Host

Murderer

Puppet

Emigrant

Thief

Soldier

Puppeteer

Smuggler

Crook

Recounting of memories

Sleeping character

Imaginary language

Argument

Fight between an actor and a puppet

Murder on stage

Stabbing

Destruction of a puppet

The Under Room

Sous-chambre

The collection brings together small stories or short heterogeneous dialogues, everyday or absurd scenes on various themes: family, school, work, social conflicts, justice, war, mendicancy, etc. The human turns out to be disposable, just like crumpled paper is.

Drawn character

Not specified

France

Clermont-Ferrand

Trash can

Dehumanisation

Humanity

Remembrance

Paper

Daily

Consumer society

Disposable human

Absurd

Fantasy

Satirical

Humorous

French

ou On est bien peu de chose quand même !

Doctor

Leader

Father

Mother

Daughter

Woodworker

Actor

Cook

Salesman

Postman

Schoolteacher

African

Child

Nurse

Policeman

Old man

Judge

Prosecutor

Defendant

Flower

Young girl

Lady

Grandmother

Garbage man

Comic distortion of language

Personification

Apparition of the puppeteer

Change of head on sight

Soliloquy

Punching

Metamorphosis

Court scene

Histoires post-it

Post-it stories

The puppeteer is an inmate. He plays his puppet show for an audience of psychology students who have come to hear him relate his autobiographical story. He introduces the characters: Dean’s puppet, Wayne’s puppet, and the puppets of several dead boys. He also plays his own role, that of David. David and Wayne are a teenage couple. Dean is older than them. In their house, they talk of multiple murders they committed together: in the cave, the victims were killed by Dean, with the help of Wayne, after having been sexually assaulted, tortured and mutilated. The crimes were recorded on camera by David. The series of murders goes on until the murder of Jamie – a boy Wayne was in love with. Wayne is blinded by rage and kills Dean. David suggests that they put an end to the killing spree. Wayne agrees in a first time. But when he meets Brad, another boy, and engages in an erotic game at the end of which he takes Dean’s place: he tortures Brad until he kills him. After the murder, David kills Wayne during a panic attack. Then he calls the police and confesses to his crimes.

Glove-puppet

Ventriloquism

Full-view manipulation

Adults

Cooper Dennis

Brest

Electronic text

Torture

Blood

Perversity

Madness

Drugs

Serial killer

Teenagers

United States of America

Drug addiction

Minor news

Homosexuality

Schizophrenia

Evil

Gore

Dennis Cooper, Jerk, stage direction by Gisèle Vienne, 2008.

Alternating narrative / dialogue

Address to the public

Puppet theatre within the theatre

Off-stage voice

Musical pause

Jerk

Whilst she is walking on a beach, Caroline, a puppeteer, tells Filip the story of how they met twenty years ago. The action of the play goes back to that time, when she was a student and was attending her last drawing class. The teacher gives them a horse as part of a teaching experiment. The horse suddenly bursts in the classroom. Sacha is then informed that her father, who lives in another country thousands of miles away, is dying. Caroline offers to go with her and so she can say her last goodbye. They drive there with Raphaël, whose girlfriend Marie lives close to their final destination. When they arrive at Marie’s house, Raphaël learns that Marie has been cheating on him with his brother. He still decides to stay with her. Caroline and Sasha leave and arrive in the holiday cottage of one of their classmates. There, Caroline meets Filip. They share a night of love, but at dawn, he is gone. Caroline and Sasha continue their journey where they witness an accident, and they arrive in the village where Sasha’s father lives. Sasha goes to join him whilst Caroline walks along the little streets and meets the villagers. Sasha comes back and announces that her father died. She’s holding a picture of herself when she was a child, and starts talking to the picture and telling it about her passion for puppets. The next day, Sasha and Caroline attend the funeral, and then take a plane to go back to France.

Shadow theatre

Direct Manipulation Bunraku-type Puppetry

Human sized puppet

Charleville-Mézières

Journey

Death

Passion

Future

Unfaithfulness

Love

Grief

Road-movie

Realist

François Cervantès, Attends-moi, Charleville-Mézières, 2010.

Writer

Student

Teacher

Neighbour

Brother

Girl friend

Dead woman

Teenager

Sister

Aunt

Analepsis (Flash-back)

Classroom scene

Animal cry

Simultaneous scenes

Night scene

Song

Dead talking character

Burial

Dreamt scene

Duplication

Attends-moi

Wait for me

Monsieur Legris lives alone in a sad house, where everything is either grey, black or white. That is, until a strange yellow parcel is delivered to his house, from which Confetti comes out. This tiny and colourful character hides immense sorrow inside him. Slowly, despite being complete opposites, the two characters grow closer – each learning how to live again thanks the other.