The Barionnettes de la Voie verte are three teams of puppeteers who will travel along the Voie verte by bike and perform their show in bars., the week before the launch of the World Festival of Puppet Theaters of Charleville-Mézières to be held from 19 28 September 2025 in Die. These shows are free to attend!
3 routes along the Green Way from September 11 to 13, 2025
Course 1: “Eat your dead” or grandmother’s remedy for digesting grief
Under the title Eat Your Dead or Grandma's Remedy to Digest a Mourning, three funny ladies in black skirts, like the Triplets of Belleville who would display a pretty funereal inclination, address the question of mourning, in a form that is at once poetic, clownish and puppet-like. While in other civilizations, death is celebrated and welcomed with joy, in Western societies it is associated with darkness, tears, and sadness. What if we invented another way to accompany the deceased? With their papier-mâché masks and long skirts that transform into hybrid bodies, the three puppeteers imagine a festive ceremony for all audiences and all terrains, to joyfully talk about death and sharing. Above all, sharing.
Course 2: The 12 Tasks of Hercules
What if Hercules, demigod and son of Zeus, a formidable warrior, was given twelve terrible household tasks. Would he be able to accomplish them? With humor, Raphaëll Dupuy creates a delicious connection between the domestic world, often sexistically linked to women, and the mythological world with its virile demonstrations. Not hesitating to transform a mop into the Lernaean Hydra or an iron into Minos' bull, our hero converts his household actions into mythological feats until he comes up against an insurmountable obstacle: opening a jar. Enough to undermine his masculinity... An inventive and funny object theater, tinged with a good dose of self-mockery, which tackles the question of the distribution of tasks in the home, among other things!
Route 3: Punchinello's Happy Trick
Of Italian origin, Polichinelle belongs to one of the oldest forms of popular theater, called Guaratelle. Philippe Saumont is one of the few French puppeteers to practice this art, which is over 500 years old and is passed down from master to student. Trained in Naples with Bruno Leone, he has toured the world and received numerous international awards. With reduced mobility after several back operations, he returns today with his Punchinello, which plays with everything from the puppeteer to the audience, including death, which he makes dance with humor. With its funny and clownish cruelty, this fairground theater, with its traditional puppets manipulated with skill, will make young and old laugh out loud.
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