School - Edward Gordon Craig

Printed

2 pages

Author(s)

School

or Thou Shalt not Commit (The 11th Commandment)

Edward Gordon Craig
| 1916 | Marina di Pisa, Italy
Genre (as defined by the author)
Interlude
Number of acts
1
Note

The Drama for Fools is a long theatrical cycle containing multiple interludes, including School, or Thou Shalt not Commit (The 11th Commandment). This cycle kept Craig very busy between 1916 and 1918. It was supposed to hold 365 short plays and be performed like a traveling show: each night, from April 1st to March 31st, a new play was to be performed in a new location. Craig, who signed his plays under the nickname Tom Fool, stopped writing before the cycle was finished and gave up on performing the play himself. Nonetheless, he managed to keep his drafts in three cardboard boxes, as a collection of typewritten notebooks containing a myriad of illustrations and whose covers were calligraphed in different colors. He cared immensely for these notebooks: he improved, corrected, and added material to them until the 1950s. Nowadays, this collection belongs to the International Puppet Institute (Institut International de la Marionnette), based in Charleville-Mézières.

An instruction in one of Craig’s manuscripts proves that his intention is less to mock the British composure than to mock the behaviour of some politicians: he writes that his play is “staged at Westminster year after year”. He plans to use glove puppets for the School teacher and the Pupils, and string puppets for the Bee and the Bull.

Plot summary

A man is punished for his obliviousness

An elementary school teacher teaches his pupils that, in order to be a good Englishman, you have to know how to never compromise yourself and always give vague answers. A bee stings one of the pupils who swears out loud and is then told off. A bull enters galloping, driven mad by the red tie of the teacher, who maintains his composure while the children start to panic. The bull runs straight into the school and throws it into the air with all the people still inside.

Composition date
1916

Publications and translations

Publication

The English Review, vol. XXVI, London, January 1918, p. 24-28.

Modern edition

Edward Gordon Craig, The Drama for Fools / Le Théâtre des fous. Montpellier: L'Entretemps, 2012.

Language
English
Literary tones
Comical, Satirical
Animations techniques
Glove-puppet
, String marionette
Audience
Not specified
Licence
Institut International de la Marionnette & Edward Gordon Craig Estate

Key-words

Theatrical techniques

Permalink

Written by

Didier Plassard