The play begins with an old shepherd looking after his flocks and talking briefly with his two sons. While the eldest borrows money that his family has accumulated by working, the youngest announces that he is going to leave, because he longs to live another kind of life. The father replies in the way of a humble man entrusting God with the future of both his wealth and of his youngest son. The next three tableaux show the sinful life of pleasures which the youngest brother enjoys in Thebes before famine and regrets convince him to come back home. The oldest son’s resentment, which the Gospel mentions, is left out of the play. The last tableau does not mention the tensions between the two brothers (which were only suggested at the beginning of the play), and only the father’s joy at being reunited with his son is shown.

Shadow theatre

Not specified

France

Paris

Printed

Wealth

Debauchery

Mercy

Repentance

Orientalism

Splendor

Lyrical

L'Enfant prodigue : flat articulated figure of the father (first tableau).

French

Scènes bibliques en 7 tableaux

Father

Board

Alternating narrative / dialogue

Dance

Pantomime

L'Enfant prodigue

The Prodigal Son

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.

Actor and puppet

Glove-puppet

Ventriloquism

Full-view manipulation

Adults

Cooper Dennis

Brest

Electronic text

Murder

Torture

Blood

Perversity

Madness

Drugs

Serial killer

Teenagers

United States of America

Drug addiction

Minor news

Homosexuality

Schizophrenia

Evil

Tragic

Humorous

Gore

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

English

Recounting of memories

Address to the public

Puppet theatre within the theatre

Off-stage voice

Musical pause

Jerk

Ondina Peteani was born in Trieste on 26 April 1925. As a teenager, she began to associate with the Fontanot family and attended communist meetings. At the age of seventeen, she chose to become an underground activist of the Italian Communist Party (PCI). She soon began to carry out her first resistance actions under the pseudonym "Natalia". During a police operation in a mountain refuge, Ondina managed to save herself with the help of comrade Cvetko. In June 1943, all the members of the resistance group to which Ondina belonged, Ondina herself, her mother and her sister were imprisoned because of a double agent. After the armistice on 8 September, they are all freed by the people. The informer turns out to be Ondina's sister, Santina, because she had a love affair with a young fascist. Santina is executed. Fighting against the Germans begins and the resistance fighters succumb after a fierce struggle. Ondine and comrade Stecchi are sent in pursuit of the traitor Blechi, who has caused the death of many resistance fighters after infiltrating among them. The comic sketch with the glove-puppets begins: Blechi notices the presence of Ondina and Stecchi and disguises himself as a priest so as not to be recognised, thus managing to escape. When he meets Ondina, he disguises himself as an old man, but she recognises him and Blechi is caught and killed. In 1944, Ondina is deported to the Auschwitz concentration camp as a political prisoner. She survives despite the physical and psychological hardships. The horror she experienced in the camp did not erase her conviction that she had to fight for resistance and freedom.

Gloved hand

Mannequin

Cuscunà Marta

Italy

Monfalcone

Documentary story

Biography

True story

Resistance fighter

Partisan struggle

Resistance

Fascism

Communism

Feminism

Woman

Heroism

Maquis

Concentration camp

Realist

Pathetic

Dramatic

Italian

Progetto di teatro civile per un’attrice, cinque burattini e un pupazzo

Choir

Peasant accent

Comical regional accent

Transforming scenery

Disguise

Confinement

Disguised character (false identity)

Narrative Theater

Narrator

Murder on stage

È bello vivere liberi!

It's good to live free!

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 isolated barn, 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 seems intelligent in front of his court, and he announces that he will wear the fabric for the next procession. When that day arrives, he undresses and puts on the fabric. He awards an honorary distinction to the Tisserands, 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.

Young audiences

Lyon

Tale

King

Swindling

Intelligent

Clothes

Money

Invisible

Comical

La conteuse et son roi nu, Compagnie Chiloé, 2018.

Storyteller

Voice

Prime Minister

Tisserand

Counselor

Cook

Child

Dialogue with the audience

Sound effects

Song

Running gag

Undressed character on stage

Crowd

La Conteuse et son roi nu

The Storyteller and her naked king

The puppeteer is about to tell a true story, the story of Lumi and Ginco, two young migrants from Albania. Their friend Vassillaq was supposed to play the role of the narrator, but as he did not show up, the puppeteer will do it for him. The young girl Lumi lives in Albania with her brother Bato and their grandmother. Their parents have lived in Venice-Mestre, Italy for eight years. One day the two siblings are finally able to join their parents: a wealthy cousin who lives in Canada has asked for Lumi's hand in marriage, and Bregan, Lumi's father, has accepted. Lumi and Bato embark on the perilous sea journey and finally arrive in Venice-Mestre. Another young Albanian, Ginco, has recently arrived at the site where Bregan works. He has no papers, but he is helped by Bregan and Vassillaq, another Albanian migrant with a passion for illegal car racing. As soon as they meet, Ginco and Lumi fall madly in love, but when Bregan finds out, he is furious: he wants to marry Lumi to her rich cousin. The day of the official engagement arrives, but Lumi is disgusted by her fat and pompous cousin. To punish her, her father sends her to live with her aunt, but Lumi continues to see Ginco and becomes pregnant. It is finally thanks to the intervention of the aunt that Bregan is convinced to allow the two young lovers to marry. The wedding finally takes place, but Vassillaq, who was supposed to be the groom's best man, is not there: he died the day before, while participating in one of his illegal races. That's why the puppeteer had to assume the role of narrator...

Manipulated object

Object theatre

Brunello Gigio

Molnár Gyula (aka Giulio Molnár)

Mogliano Veneto

Migrant

Italy (north)

Impossible love

Love

Family stories

Real

Boat trip

Magic

Poetry

Corse clandestine in città

Cheval ailé

Fairy

Grandmother

Love story

Thwarted love

Absence of the main character

Lumi dall'alto

Lights from above

Alcide Cervi was a farmer. In 1934 he moved with his family to Gattatico, near Reggio Emilia, on a piece of land called Campirossi ("red fields"), which nobody wanted because it was infertile. He lives there with his nine children: seven boys and two girls. With hard work, they manage to make these fields prosper, and the family can afford to buy a tractor. The Cervi family is known for their anti-fascist political positions. After July 1943, when the Americans landed and Mussolini was arrested, all seemed well. But in November of the same year, a hundred fascists besieged the Campirossi house. The seven brothers try to resist, but they are arrested and eventually executed. As a sign of support and respect, Alcide Cervi never ceased to receive gifts from all sides: a Bible from the Fiat factory workers in Turin, a globe from the agricultural cooperative workers in Santa Vittoria, skittles for his grandchildren from some friends of the boules club. Finally, the puppeteer himself, Maurizio Bercini, wants to give Alcide a gift: a puppet with his features, with which he can transform pain 'into serenity and play'.