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.

Glove-puppet

Manipulated object

All audiences

France

Paris

Duranty Louis Émile Edmond

Printed

Silver wedding

Harassment

Cipidity

Stock exchange

Blackmail

Forced marriage

Violence

Threat

Battered woman

Comical

Farcical

French

Pierrot

Constable

Monologue

Misunderstanding

Blow-with-a-stick

Song

Beating with a broom

Hidden character

Ambush

Off-stage voice

Lazzi

Stone throwing

Aside

Headbutt

Throwing objects

Liquid spray

Final song

Running gag

Chase

Le Mariage de raison

The Marriage of reason

On a rainy night, Pulcinella comes back home, prepares his bed and lies down in it. He has just fallen asleep when his friend Felice knocks on his door and asks for shelter from the storm. Felice has just seen Gilda, his fiancée, with a bersagliere (a soldier from a special corps of the Italian army) at the Teatro di San Carlo – the opera of Naples. Overcome with jealousy, he decides to go home but he cannot find his keys. After listening to his friend, Pulcinella offers him a chair to sleep in for the night. Felice cannot fall asleep and starts singing and screaming. Then he imagines that he is fighting the bersagliere and he throws all of Pulcinella’s furniture out of the window, including the bed. Gilda arrives at this moment. She explains that the bersagliere is her brother. She has come to tell Felice that he is going to inherit a large sum of money. Out of joy, Felice promises two millions liras to Pulcinella, who shouts: “per te sarò un principe, per lei sarò un signore, per questo colto pubblico umile servitore” (“for you, I will be a prince, for her I will be a lord, and for this cultured audience, an humbler servant”).

Not specified

Ferrajolo Pasquale

Italy

Naples

Night

Treason

Friendship

Inheritance

Love

Italian

ovvero Temporale a Mezzanotte

Pulcinella

The Interpreter

Fiancé

Felice Sciosciammocca

Fiancée

Thunderbolt

Sound of rain

Sleeping character

Word for another

Word warping

Address to the public

'Na nuttata 'e guai

A night of troubles or Storm at midnight

Caliban, the slave of Prospero the magician, expresses his loneliness and the difficulty he has interacting with others. He retells his personal story, characterized by his submission to the magician since he arrived on Caliban's island, and by his desire for Prospero's daughter Miranda. Antonio, Prospero's brother and the one responsible for his deposition, is washed up on the shores with the King of Naples and his crew. Caliban meets Trinculo and Stephano, two drunkards who come up with a plan to kill Prospero and steal his books. However, when it is time to take action, Caliban thinks of his mother, and supernatural spirits take possession of him. He then goes back on his decision. Meanwhile, Prospero uses a ploy to get back his title as Duke of Milan. He suggests to the King of Naples that their two children, Miranda and Ferdinand, marry. The King accepts, and they decide to go back to Italy. They make fun of Caliban and insult him before abandoning him on his island.

Object theatre

Young audiences

Great Britain

Brighton

Loneliness

Savoir

Shipwreck

Magic

Slavery

Shakespeare

Dramatic

Tim Couch, La Tempête de Caliban, directed by the Compagnie Pupella-Noguès, 2023.