Fleeing his wife, Polichinelle steals a charlatan's cabriolet with Pierrot. First he wins the trust of the population with free advice, then he launches a subscription for a phantom financial company. When the shareholders demand their money, he sends them away with good words and blows, until the Public itself comes to threaten him directly. Mrs. Polichinelle offers to take care of the punishment. Terrified, Polichinelle flees into the forest. Abandoned by Pierrot, he walks to Hell. There, he tries to swindle Death and stands up to the Devil who, in desperation, goes looking for Mrs. Polichinelle. She brings her husband home firmly, with the approval of the audience.

Glove-puppet

All audiences

France

Paris

Duranty Louis Émile Edmond

Printed

Swindling

Hell

Marriage hell

Punishment

Forest

Public

Perseverance in Evil

Money

Capitalism

Bossy woman

Escape

Comical

Satirical

Farcical

Ironic

French

Le Charlatan

Charlatan

Polichinelle

Crook

Pierrot

Tenant

Lady

Peasant

Cassandre

Cassandra

Shopkeeper

Colombine

Valet

Death

Devil

Intervention of the audience

Apparition of the Devil

Plot twist

Blow-with-a-stick

Apparition of Death

L'Homme au cabriolet

the man with a cabriolet

Mr. Fish pays a visit to Mrs. Bones and starts a conversation with her. Mrs. Bones uses different excuses to get angry and threaten to kill Mr. Fish. She then asks him to get divorced from his wife, while offering to get a divorce from her husband for them to marry. Mr. Fish, frightened, begs Teddy, his puppeteer, to save him from this situation. The latter pulls at the puppet’s strings to take him back to the fly loft. Then a hand comes down (the puppeteer’s) and threatens Mrs. Bones, while her strings are cut one by one. Cockatrice, Mrs. Bones’ “old friend,” wants to seduce her and take her with him, but Mrs. Bones can no longer move. Cockatrice thus sends for a girl in the audience to take the puppet, which is now merely a doll. The play ends with the appearance of the face of the Governor (the puppeteer) and with a grand finale for Mrs. Bones, who ascends to heaven, to the surprise amazement of a myriad of glove puppets watching her.

String marionette

Not specified

Craig Edward Gordon

Italy

Bologna

Rapallo

Argument

Divorce

Anger

Woman

Doll

Whim

Edward Gordon Craig, drawing of the heads of Mrs Bones and Mr. Fish

English

Cockatrice

Young girl

Puppeteer

Metadiscourse on puppet theatre

Apparition of the puppeteer

Flying machine

Comedy of language

Address to the public

Ascension

Mr Fish and Mrs Bones

A runaway slave meets a dragon which threatens to breathe fire on him; he asks the dragon whether it has the sultan’s permission to do so, predicting that the dragon will eat his former master before the guard kills it. But things do not turn out exactly as expected. Right before the audience, the dragon meets a knight who wants the sultan to recognise his superiority to become a knight too. The sultan refuses to talk, appointing the dragon to speak in his stead and authorising him to breathe fire on the knight. The slave returns in order to sit on the throne that he thinks empty – and it is indeed soon to be the case, because the sultan suddenly decides to follow in the deceased knight’s footsteps and take his place. Meanwhile, the fat Katja, who was dancing and singing for the sultan, has moved in with the dragon, and everyone is invited for coffee.

Young audiences

Fühmann Franz

Germany

Märkisch Buchholz

Tyranny

Slave

Emancipation

Animals, Mythical

Reign

Despotism

Turkey

Forecast

Discussions

Tolerance

Vocation

Coffee

Slogan

Politics

Civism

Love

Couple

Society

Black

Humorous

Fantasy

German

Wie wird man Oberdiskutierer

Magician

Fat lady

Dragon

Sultan

Knight

Spectacular turn of events

Imbroglio

Talking animal

Song

Object coming to life

Political allegory

Prologue

Personification

Optional scene

Dialogue of the deaf

Improvised scene

Der glückliche Ritter von Trinitat

The happy Knight of Trinitat

Kaspar is picking flowers in a forest for the birthday of his wife, Grete. He catches Hubertus the hunter about to murder Schneewittchen (Snow-White) following the order of Schneewittchen’s own mother, the queen Tausendschön. Kaspar convinces Hubertus to let her go and suggests to the princess that she seeks refuge at the seven dwarfs’ house. However, when the magic mirror tells the truth to the queen, the hunter denounces Kaspar and hands him over to the queen. She then tries to poison Schneewittchen twice. As she attempts it the second time, Kaspar escapes from prison and seeks refuge at the seven dwarfs' home as well. Schneewittchen passes out before his eyes, and he shakes her so much that she spits out the piece of apple that was poisoned with pesticide. Learning once again from her mirror that her daughter has survived, the queen gets so angry that she dies. Schneewittchen then takes her place on the throne and, in the final act, begins to behave as tyrannically and capriciously as her mother.

Berlin

Mother

Mother-in-law

Beauty

Vanity

Haughtiness

Power

Jail

Poison

Assassination

Denunciation

Corruption

Pesticide

Wealth

Fashion victim

Parodistic

Burlesque

Queen

Snow White

Hunter

General

Jailer

Guard

Mirror

Dwarf

Kasperl

Madame Kasperl

Monologue

Murder on stage

Metatheatre

Running away

Trap

Confinement

Das Spiel von Kaspar, der Königin Tausendschön und der noch tausendmal schöneren Prinzessin Schneewittchen

The play about Kaspar, Queen Thousand Beauty and the thousands of times more beautiful Princess Snow White

When the Albufera of Valencia was still only an immense lake, a dragon appeared there and terrorised the population. The terrible beast found pleasure in eating people. Neither the militia, nor the Church, nor the governor himself were capable of defeating the obdurate dragon. Only Salomon (Solomon), a Jewish merchant, wanted to fight the dragon, but he was unjustly poisoned in the end. When Salomon was finally freed, he killed the dragon using a ruse and the people applauded him.

Direct Manipulation Bunraku-type Puppetry

Shadow theatre

Spain

Valencia

Legend

Hero

Irony

Cunning

Fantastic

Heroic

Cover page of Manuel Cubedo's El drac

Catalan

El drac de l'Albufera

Child

Granddaugther

Merchant (man)

Soldier

Narrator

Merchant (woman)

Captain

Festival organiser

Priest

Sacristan

Governor

Children games

Theatre within the theatre

Storyteller

El drac

The dragon

Three young chicks speaking different languages travel together. They are looking for the sun, which has not been seen for three days. After meeting other small animals on the way, who guided them, they find that the sun is trapped behind a dark cloud. At the end, they make the sun shine again with the audience’s help.