Mistreated by his aunt and his uncle since the death of his father, the farmer Timothy Coombewest decides to leave and seek his fortune. He asks Marjorie Morning to wait for him for a few years and to marry him upon his return. He becomes a cabin boy on board the Linnet. Once at sea, Captain Chief, or Blackbeard the Second, tasks his crew with a new quest: he wants to find an emerald that was buried by Jamesee Henderson several years before. Coastal erosion should have exposed the precious stone, permitting ships to see it with a naked eye. Eight years pass, and the emerald still remains lost. Colorado Maduro expresses his gratitude at the kindness of Timothy (Tim), who has not let him die of hunger while the captain has imprisoned him in the ship's hold. He confides in Tim that he found and stole the emerald a year before, but that his destiny is sealed: the one who steals this precious stone is cursed with a year left to live, and the one who receives it as a gift will be blessed with prosperity. The ship jets out towards the cliffs and sinks. In a grotto under the sea, Tim meets Davy Jones, who gives him back the precious gem. Tim, now captain, navigates towards the direction of his hometown. From the shore, the inhabitants see the sails of his ship and prepare to welcome him and to celebrate his marriage to Marjorie.

Toy theatre

Young audiences

Ireland

Strete

Printed

Piracy

Treasure

Curse

Wedding

Humorous

Dramatic

English

Farmer

Captain

Pirate

Sailor

Fiancée

Narrator

Shipwreck scene

Aria

Account of a dream

Timothy Coombewest or Esmeralda Grande

Timothy Coombewest ou Esmeralda Grande

In a prologue, the pirate Willie McGowan expresses his love for pillaging ships and their treasures. Yet he is weary of being assaulted by warships since the thieves generally attack in the morning when everyone is asleep. Many men die, and the pirates' only booty is a few bottles of rum. Thus, Willie decides to give up his ship and to return to his hometown to take up a less depressing occupation. Three years go by, and Willie leads a contented life. He works on a boat, the Gleaner, and is well-paid. The ship's owner, Old Henderson, asks him to accompany migrants who want to go to America. Willie refuses; the Gleaner, he believes, will sink after three days at sea. Old Henderson tries to convince him that if the ship sinks, he could return on a sailboat stored onboard. He would be paid a handsome sum as the migrants have already paid their fares. Willie again responds with a no as he does not want to deceive the passengers. Old Henderson accuses him of cowardice and no longer being the pirate he once was. Jessie Henderson, his daughter, encourages Willie to go after the money since she could not possibly marry a poor man. Old Henderson finally decides to make the crossing with his daughter; he dreamt he would find treasure in the old garden near the Point, and he interpreted this as a good omen. Willie digs in the spot Old Henderson described and finds the treasure. The master of the crew, Bosun Hardbite, announces that all have survived the sea journey, except Old Henderson and his daughter.

Wicklow

Swindling

Migrant

Renunciation

Shipwreck

Ironic

Willie McGowan / The Man Hunter of the Gulf

Emigrant

Daughter

Singer

Song

Trap

The Treasure of the Garden

Le Trésor du jardin

Captain Caricknagat, heading a ship of pirates, beats and expels Joe Miles since he made a move on his wife. Miles promises vengeance. The Captain and his team disembark on the shore of an island to find fresh water. They are attacked by its inhabitants. Captain asks a part of his troupes to bring his wife, 'The Lolita,' to his ship while he fights with the natives. Upon return to the ship, however, she is nowhere to be found, and the majority of his men have perished in the battle. Two days later, James Broad, the boatswain, returns. He has escaped and carries a message that The Lolita etched into a piece of tree bark. She writes that her body will be burnt and her head hung at the entrance of a cave. She asks her husband to recover her head, to put it in a box, and to bury it once back on their island (The Isle of Plumes). The Captain sends the last of his men to retrieve the remains of his wife, but it's a fluke, and only the Captain and James survive. The two pirates wait for nightfall to finally steal back the skull and the vessel before returning home. James dies of thirst as Captain nears the shore. Joe Miles, who is waiting for Captain on the island since being expelled from the ship, kills him for vengeance and steals his treasure. When he opens the chest, however, he finds only a severed head.

Revenge

Death

Last will

Boat

Relic

Black comedy

Jack B. Yeats, The Scourge of the Gulph, 1911.

Or Fierce Revenge

Wife

Gunshot

Murder on stage

Wandering

Plot twist

The Scourge of The Gulph

Le Fouet du Golfe

The wanderer Nabíh tells a child, Hassan, how the merchant Abdul found on a dead man’s body a bottle from which emerges a genie. This genie, in turn, tells the story of the dead man, a fallen king, father of Fatima, a princess who is said to have taken refuge among the desert dwellers because of the fratricidal war. The king's supporters are looking for Fatima to offer her the throne, and discover that she is Laïla, Hassan's mother. However, she renounces the throne to become the princess of the desert. Other stories are added to this main plot.

Shadow theatre

Rod puppet

String marionette

Sirera Rodolf

Spain

Valencia

Tale

Fantasy

Adventure

Vagrant

Genie

Theatre at school

East

Princess

Didactic

Catalan

Vagabond

Child

Merchant (man)

Commanding officer

Address to the public

Theatre within the theatre

Apparition of a genie

Throws

Dance

Instrumental tune

La Princesa del desert

Princess of the Desert

Miséria est un vieux forgeron qui passe ses journées à travailler le fer. Son seul plaisir est de prendre soin de son noyer. Un jour, São Pedro (Saint Pierre) vient lui rendre visite, demandant un fer à cheval. Comme il ne lui en reste plus, Miséria lui propose de prendre celui qui est un porte-bonheur en argent. Quelques temps plus tard, São Pedro retourne chez Miséria, disant qu’il peut demander un souhait. Miséria demande que ceux qui grimpent dans son noyer pour voler des noix finissent prisonniers de l’arbre. 
Quand la Mort arrive pour chercher Miséria, il fait un pacte avec le diable, avec lequel il gagne 20 ans. Au bout de 20 ans, la Mort revient. A ce moment, Miséria lui demande un dernier souhait : qu’elle grimpe à l’arbre pour lui chercher une noix. Ainsi, la Mort devient prisonnière du noyer. Tant qu'elle est prisonnière de l'arbre, le soleil ne se couche plus, il n’y a plus de vent, les feuilles restent immobiles ; le monde s’est arrêté. Miséria finit pas libérer la Mort à condition qu’elle lui promette la vie éternelle. La Mort accepte, mais le prévient qu’il regrettera son souhait. La pièce finit avec le vieux forgeron qui travaille le fer, se plaignant de son sort : son arbre qui était la raison de son existence vient de mourir et il reste condamné à la vie éternelle.

Full-view manipulation

Adults

Portugal

Porto

Magalhães Álvaro

Electronic text

Old age

Tree

Deal with the Devil

Desires

Human condition

Future punishment

Time

Immortality

Philosophical tale

Tragic

Comical

Miséria (Teatro de Marionetas do Porto, 1991)

Portuguese

Old man

Blacksmith

Devil

Saint Peter

Voice

Apparition of a Saint

Apparition of Death

Peasant accent

Change of voice

Smoke

Flying character

Music

Miséria

Misère

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

Glove-puppet

Legend

Dragon

Hero

Irony

Cunning

Fantastic

Heroic

Satirical

Cover page of Manuel Cubedo's El drac

El drac de l'Albufera

Granddaugther

Soldier

Merchant (woman)

Festival organiser

Priest

Sacristan

Guard

Governor

Talking animal

Intervention of the audience

Children games

Storyteller

El drac

The dragon

The protagonist, Franz, is a young Viennese scientist who, during a hypnosis session conducted by Mesmer, learns that his cousin Angèlica, with whom he is in love, is in great danger. He decides to go to her rescue and, after many adventures, arrives in Budapest to find that she has just died. Convinced that she has been hypnotised by the alchemist Adam Le Fay, he keeps her body in ice, brings her back to his laboratory and tries various experiments to resurrect her. He fails and is accused of her murder by Napoleonic troops who have just entered Vienna. Sentenced to death, he is saved at the last moment by Le Fay who explains to him that if one of them dies, the other also perishes. They duel, Franz throws himself on Le Fay's sword, and both die at the same time. It is clear that they are two sides of the same personality, symbolising the conflict between rationalism and superstition.

Actor and puppet

Automaton

Rationalism

Science

Religion

Superstition

Alchemy

Symbolism

Hypnotism

Spiritisme

Double

Divination

Supernatural

Love

Melodramatic

Obra per a titelles i actors

Savant

Alchemist

Doctor

Franz-Anton Mesmer

Homes I Dones Espectadors de la sessió d'hipnotisme

Coachman

Horserider

Lady

Innkeeper

Maid

Hangman

Corpse snatcher

Prison guard

Voisine

Funfair Traveller

Bookseller

Servant

Valet

Carpenter

Executioner

Officer

Magic act

Projected shadows

Surprise effect

Hypnosis session

Masked characters

Sword fight

Analepsis (Flash-back)

Prolepsis (Flash-forward)

Imbroglio

La mirada de l'alquimista

The alchemist's gaze

One morning, in a house with a garden, two children walk a robot-dog and ask each other questions about the world: how can we measure love? why does the sky change colours? when a flower is plucked, does it hurt?
The children keep asking questions, and try to answer some of them: is a storm just an angry cloud? can we find infinity where the sea ends?
This journey in the world of whys is completed by several stories in which eccentric characters like a balloon-hippopotamus, a widow-caterpillar, and a cow-fish mix with Humpty Dumpty, Hansel and Gretel, and the Little Prince. The children tell their stories while doing household chores. The widow-caterpillar saw her husband die, run over by a bike, but she remains cheerful. The balloon-hippopotamus has been floating in the sky since the previous summer, but only the little girl can see it. As for the cow-fish, it appeared the day several cows fell in the sea and transformed after eating seaweed. The last story of the day chosen by the children is the one about Bicho Papão (Bogeyman) because he is not so evil after all.