''The Billy-Club Puppets'' (''Los títeres de cachiporra'') is a play for

puppet theatre Puppetry is a form of theatre or performance that involves the manipulation of puppets – inanimate objects, often resembling some type of human or animal figure, that are animated or manipulated by a human called a puppeteer. Such a performa ...

by the twentieth-century

Spanish Spanish might refer to: * Items from or related to Spain: **Spaniards are a nation and ethnic group indigenous to Spain **Spanish language, spoken in Spain and many Latin American countries **Spanish cuisine Other places * Spanish, Ontario, Cana ...

playwright A playwright or dramatist is a person who writes plays. Etymology The word "play" is from Middle English pleye, from Old English plæġ, pleġa, plæġa ("play, exercise; sport, game; drama, applause"). The word "wright" is an archaic English ...

Federico García Lorca Federico del Sagrado Corazón de Jesús García Lorca (5 June 1898 – 19 August 1936), known as Federico García Lorca ( ), was a Spanish poet, playwright, and theatre director. García Lorca achieved international recognition as an emblemat ...

. It was written between 1922 and 1925. It is about a beautiful heroine named Rosita who falls in love with a poor boy named Cocoliche, but has to marry Don Cristóbal, a rich old, lazy lump with a big billy club. Meanwhile, there are bar fights, some mean smugglers, and Fígaro and Wearisome discover a deep, dark secret about Don Cristóbal. He gave it the subtitle "

Tragi-comedy Tragicomedy is a literary genre that blends aspects of both tragic and comic forms. Most often seen in dramatic literature, the term can describe either a tragic play which contains enough comic elements to lighten the overall mood or a serious ...

of Don Cristóbal and Miss Rosita: A

Guignol Guignol () is the main character in a French puppet show which has come to bear his name. It represents the workers in the silk industry of France. Although often thought of as children's entertainment, Guignol's sharp wit and linguistic verve ha ...

esque

farce Farce is a comedy that seeks to entertain an audience through situations that are highly exaggerated, extravagant, ridiculous, absurd, and improbable. Farce is also characterized by heavy use of physical humor; the use of deliberate absurdity o ...

in six scenes and an announcement."García Lorca (1970, 21). Don Cristóbal is a kind of

Punch Punch commonly refers to: * Punch (combat), a strike made using the hand closed into a fist * Punch (drink), a wide assortment of drinks, non-alcoholic or alcoholic, generally containing fruit or fruit juice Punch may also refer to: Places * Pun ...

character (which itself was based on

Pulcinella Pulcinella (; nap, Pulecenella) is a classical character that originated in of the 17th century and became a stock character in Neapolitan puppetry. Pulcinella's versatility in status and attitude has captivated audiences worldwide and kept t ...

), who also appears in García Lorca's other, later puppet play, ''

The Puppet Play of Don Cristóbal ''The Puppet Play of Don Cristóbal'' (''Retablillo de Don Cristóbal'') is a play for puppet theatre by the twentieth-century Spanish dramatist Federico García Lorca. It was written in 1931 and was first performed on 11 May 1935 at the Book Fai ...

'' (written in 1931).García Lorca (1963, 10, 13).

Works cited

* García Lorca, Federico. 1970. ''The Billy-Club Puppets''. In ''Five Plays: Comedies and Tragi-Comedies''. Trans. James Graham-Lujan and Richard L. O'Connell. London: Penguin. . p. 21-60. * García Lorca, Francisco. 1963. Introduction. In ''Five Plays: Comedies and Tragi-Comedies'' by Federico García Lorca. Trans. James Graham-Lujan and Richard L. O'Connell. London: Penguin, 1970. . p. 9-20.

References

Plays by Federico García Lorca 1925 plays Plays featuring puppetry {{1920s-play-stub