La Conteuse et son roi nu is part of a collected works of nine theatre plays written by Patrick Dubost, four of which were conceived specifically for puppets. The play was commissioned by Isabelle Paquet, artistic director of the French Compagnie Chiloé. Patrick Dubost had already collaborated with the in 2006 for Tango-nuit, a play for an actress, a dancer and a pianist.

The commission is a rewriting of a tale by Hans Christian Andersen, The Emperor’s New Clothes, for “an actress and another character, invisible like the clothes in the fable”. Patrick Dubost produced a very loose adaptation in “49 breaths” that he himself qualified as “a little bit disrespectful”. In his rewriting, he added a voice-over to narrate (or disrupt) the story of the Roi de Panelange (King of Panelange)

The text was staged twice by Isabelle Paquet, once in 2011, then, with a new team, in 2018 for the Festival Off d’Avignon. The puppets are sculpted from potatoes or onions by the actress on stage.

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.