Don Juan murders Don Pietro, who came running to his daughter Anna’s aid for a villain had tried to seduce her by night and, failing to do so, attempted to abduct her. In the following scene, Don Juan receives two successive visits. His servant Hans turns out the first visitor – a creditor asking for his money – while his master hides. Then a judge with a court clerk comes to investigate the death of Don Pietro. Don Juan pretends to be someone else. He then undertakes to leave town incognito by changing clothes with Hans, who boasts about his new role as the master. As the judge nearly recognises them, Don Juan kills him. The two fugitives reach the cemetery, where Don Juan asks Hans to invite Don Pietro’s statue. The ghost agrees and comes over. Don Juan refuses to repent. Hans, to whom the ghost assured there was nothing to fear, follow them to the cemetery out of curiosity, and he sees his master walk into hell.

Not specified

Austria

Innsbruck

Printed

Assassination

Murder

Deaf

Creditor

Debt

Seduction

Abduction

Hell

Fart

Judge

Judgment

Laziness

Comical

German

Innsbrucker Don Juan

Don Juan

Hanswurst

Don Pietro

Anna

Domestic servant

Debtor

Clerk

Bourgeois

Serf

Soldier

Ghost

Devil

Misunderstanding

Disguise

Role reversal

Running gag

Word for another

Comical regional accent

Murder on stage

Political allegory

Play in verse

Running away

Replacement of one character by another

The devil steals the box in which Kasperl, in the previous play (<a href="https://puppetplays.eu/en/oeuvres/5777/frau-kasperl-und-die-köchin" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Frau Kasperl und die Köchin</a>) had locked his wife, his lover and the night watchman. He replaces it with another box in which Kasperl almost gets his nose stuck when he comes to sniff if it does not contain sausages. Instead, the devil emerges and wants to take him away. But Kasperl has fun making him disappear and reappear with the magic formula "Parlucke! Parlicke" until the devil gets dizzy and cries for mercy. He insists that Kasperl follow him, who finally announces that he is going to draw his will and returns with a club, with which he kills the devil. He seals him up in the box and goes to throw it in the fire.

Glove-puppet

Reinhardt Carl

Germany

Munich

Woman

Drinking

Eating

Hunger

Stick

Perlicke

Grandparents

Future punishment

Excessive drinking

Drunkard

Tralala

Radirullala

Hits

Farcical

Grotesque

Kasperl

Apparition of the Devil

Blow-with-a-stick

Hidden corpse

Kasperl und der Teufel

Kasperl and the Devil

The rich Niflanguille goes to buy a bag of coal. He comes across the hungry Pierrot, who asks for his help in vain. The coalman cheats Niflanguille out of the weight of the bag. Pierrot hides in the bag and beats up the coalman, Niflanguille and the servant. Back home, Niflanguille looks for a sword to pierce the recalcitrant bag, but Pierrot gets it out in time and forces the servant to take his place. While Niflanguille pierces the bag and his servant with it, Pierrot runs away with a bag of money. A Gendarme wants to hang Niflanguille for murder, Pierrot for theft and the coalman for swindling. Pierrot kills the Gendarme and puts him in the sack, which he throws away, while Niflanguille flees through the window. Pierrot kills the coalman to avoid sharing the money, then orders wine which he pays for by beating the innkeeper with a stick. The Commissaire arrives with Niflanguille; he hangs Pierrot, but confiscates the money to punish the bad rich man.

All audiences

France

Paris

Duranty Louis Émile Edmond

Charcoal

Poverty

Swindling

Trade

Deception

Contempt

Punishment

Money

Bad rich

Didactic

French

Pierrot

Coal merchant

Constable

Police Superintendant

Hidden character

Hanging scene

Le Sac de charbon

The Bag of Coal

Polichinelle has married the rich mother Gigogne, but he beats her children or gives them away in payment of his own debts. Grigogne complains to his cousin Niflanguille and gives him his bag of money. Polichinelle takes it to buy a horse. But the Maquignon sells him a dangerous horse and steals the money bag. Niflanguille accuses Polichinelle of the theft; mother Gigogne wants to beat her husband, but it is Niflanguille who gets the blows. Gigogne promises her husband more money if he behaves like a father to his children. But as soon as a child refuses to eat, Polichinelle kills him and throws him out of the window. Gigogne wants to punish Polichinelle, so he kills her, Niflanguille and a magician. The surviving children attack Polichinelle who chases them away. The Devil arrives and takes Polichinelle away.

Silver wedding

Child

Theft

Horse

Bad father

Bad husband

Large family

Polichinelle

Mother Gigogne

Niflanguille

Marchand de chevaux

Pork butcher

Arlecchino

Magician

Baby doll

Animal

Lazzi

Final intervention of the devil

Character thrown out of the scene

Characterisation through onomatopoeia

Polichinelle et la Mère Gigogne

Polichinelle and Mother Grignon

Pierrot is harassing his rich neighbour Mrs Trifouillon to get her to marry him. He locks her out of her house, then hides in her wardrobe. He beats her, breaks her dishes, throws her furniture in the street and deprives her of food and rest to make her give in. They fight, then she goes out to find a gendarme. When the gendarme arrives, Pierrot mistakes him for Mrs Trifouillon and pretends to marry him. Then Pierrot beats the Gendarme and throws him out. He finds Mrs Trifouillon's piggy bank, but she manages to take it back. Under threat, she agrees to marry Pierrot, who beats her to the rhythm of a wedding song that she is forced to hum while dancing.

Manipulated object

Harassment

Cipidity

Stock exchange

Blackmail

Forced marriage

Violence

Threat

Battered woman

Monologue

Song

Beating with a broom

Ambush

Off-stage voice

Stone throwing

Aside

Headbutt

Throwing objects

Liquid spray

Final song

Chase

Le Mariage de raison

The Marriage of reason

Guignol wants to talk to the colonel about something personal. The corporal shares Guignol’s query. Meanwhile, Guignol must empty the small tub which is used as a chamber pot for the entire section. This is precisely why Guignol wishes to speak with the corporal: he does not want to be given this chore anymore. The sergeant arrives and wants to know what Guignol demands, but the latter does not answer. The sergeant is annoyed and hands him the notebook in which chores are recorded, so that Guignol can give it to the corporal Bozon. The corporal tells Guignol that the colonel is here. The colonel invites Guignol to speak. Guignol explains his small tub problem. The colonel asks the sergeant why Guignol is always given this chore. The sergeant explains that there is a “guignol” (a clown/buffoon) in every section and that the “guignol” is responsible for this chore. The colonel punishes Guignol for his pointless complaint. Guignol can only cry out: “Saint Baquet (Saint Small Tub)! Pray for me!”.

Manuscript

Military hierarchy

Military service

Actor

Scatology

Satirical

Colonel

Caporal

Sergeant

Guignol

Comic stuttering

Theatrical lines used parodically

Le Baquet

The Small Tub

A Priest, whose face looks like those painted by Fra Angelico, gets out of his house, smiling at life. While hearing noise from the modern city and the industrial world, he changes his expression and his voice to better fit the expectations of a churchman. He sees a Soldier and accuses him of having a mistress. The Soldier tells him that his wife is living with the Lawyer. The Lawyer comes and shares his disapproval concerning the Merchant, who openly commits adultery with the Doctor’s wife. The Merchant then exposes the affair between the Doctor and the Actor’s wife, as well as the one between the Actor’s wife and the Doctor’s wife and the Doctor’s daughter’s passion for the Actor. Each of these revelations is followed by the exclamation “It is too much!” from the previous characters, and with a change of expression emphasizing the hypocrisy of their outrage. The Doctor and the Actor enter together, and the Doctor declares that all the women of the village are in love with the Poet. All men rush to their homes to find their wives. The Priest remains alone and asks Mary, his servant, who we can tell is his partner, to set the table to receive the Poet for lunch. He will be accompanied by all of his wives and the children he had with them. The play ends when the children get on stage, through a door opening in the sky and under a rain of rose petals.

String marionette

Craig Edward Gordon

Italy

Marina di Pisa

Hypocrisy

Unfaithfulness

Indignation

Religion

Morality

English

Priest

Merchant (man)

Doctor

Poet

Lover (woman)

Off-stage noise

Change of head on sight

Avista

Entrance by a hole in the back cloth

Rain of flowers

It is too much

C'en est trop

Anselme Sablefin, "a man of a certain age", fights against time. He does everything he can to silence the hands of his watch. But they only do as they please, despite his threats and physical attacks. On his birthday, Anselme invites his friend Pascal Beaurivage over and takes out the cake from last year’s birthday, which “had entirely faded and looked all stale and inedible”. Faced with Beaurivage’s sadness, he brings out a second cake, a fresher and mouth-watering one – the birthday cake’s birthday cake. Everytime Anselme cuts a slice, shapes suddenly come out, reminding him of various periods of his life.When Sonia, Beaurivage’s daughter, asks him to cut the last slice of the cake, a huge, red heart and tears suddenly appear. He dies, but comes back to life right after, and they all eat the cake together.

Birthday

Nostalgia

Fear

Death

Cake

Sadness

Aging

Friendship

Dramatic

Fantastic

Oversized object

Fake death

Object coming to life

Blow with an object

Apparition

A Piece of Cake

Un morceau de gâteau

The Conteuse (female narrator), with the help of the Voix Off (voice over), narrates the story of the Roi de Panelange (King of Panelange) who loves to change clothes. One day, two Tisserands (weavers) offer to create a fabric that only intelligent people would be able to see. In return, they ask for as many gold coins as there are ants in the kingdom. The Tisserands work in the dark in a big barn, isolated from everyone, around a big loom. The Roi (King) sends his Prime Minister to check on their progress, but when he gets there, he is unable to see the fabric. He pretends otherwise to the Roi, so that he is not seen as “the First Imbecile of the Kingdom”. The Roi then sends his Cuisinier en chef (head chef), and another person to check on the Tisserands’ work. The fabric is invisible to their eyes, but they all pretend otherwise. The Roi himself goes to see the result of the Tisserands’ work, but the fabric is also invisible to his eyes. He pretends he is able to see it, so that he can seem intelligent in front of his court, and he announces that he will wear the fabric for the next procession. The day of the procession arrives, and he undresses and puts on the fabric created by the Tisserands. He awards them an honorary distinction, and starts parading the streets of the kingdom. The fabric remains invisible to the crowd, who only sees a man in his underpants. They all pretend they can see the fabric, except for a child who admits to not seeing anything. The crowd admits the same thing, and says that they can only see their king half naked. To not lose any of his authority, the discombobulated Roi continues to parade as if nothing had happened.