Popular Culture Review Vol. 1, December 1989 | Page 11
formed annually on or around All Souls’ Day, November 2, often
in churches. The mass Spanish and Spanish American public has
come to regard it as a sort of modem version o f some medieval
miracle or mystery play.
I could allege other plays, popular in the narrower sense, such
as Shaw’s Man and Superman (1901-03), widely appreciated and
filled with humor, even argue that most o f them, at least peripher
ally, are popular in both senses. But, not to put too fine a point on
my contention, I will move into more purely popular areas.
All during the eighteenth century, in Italy, Germany, Austria,
France, Holland, even the United States (at least late in the seven
teen hundreds), we find Don Juan farces, pantomimes, and vaude
ville performances that did very well, as can be proven from the few
extant scripts and more frequent references. Even more in the
popular vein was the puppet show, truly a part o f folk theater. This
genre adopted the commedia deU’arte characters; not unexpect
edly, once again Hans W urst appears in the role o f Don Juan’s
servant. Juan himself often plays second fiddle to the actions of that
popular figure. The dialogues feature funny dialects, gay, often
coarse. These characters, remember, are puppets, and subtlety is
not their long suit. In one scenario, Hans observes that his master
has no business worrying over his inability to seduce a certain
stubborn woman. Plenty of them around, he adds: they are cheaper
than beef (Mandel 263). When some tourists enter an inn, the
landlady says, “Chase out the pigs; w e’re having guests” (271).
Such puppet shows were ubiquitous, cropping up here and there,
like the farces and vaudevilles, all over Europe, but especially in
Germany and the Austrian Tyrolean highlands, among the more
uneducated areas.
As for the pantomimes, one entitled Don Juan, or The Liber
tine Destroyed, extant only in summary form, goes back at least as
far as a London Drury Lane Theatre staging o f 1782, more probably
back to 1775; it was said to have been produced by David Garrick
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