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Guignol and Brindas

(version française ici)

Guignol's pages at Guignolsland : Guignol et Brindas // Gnafron (& Brindas) // Le grenier de Guignol // Guignol and Brindas -

2008 was Guignol's bicentenary & the Musée-Théâtre Guignol opened in Brindas

Program of the Museum's café-théâtre is on our BrindAGENDA page

Above : Guignol and Gnafron in a typical brindasian landscape, the place of the village (Photo : JLB)

Brindas is a village located at about fifteen kilometers south-west of Lyon, which can praise itself to be the second home of Guignol (The first one being Lyon of course). Many plays of the repertory of the famous puppet show actually mention Brindas : Guignol meets his essential fellow Gnafron in Brindas, and it is there too that he becomes engaged and married. If by chance (in other stories) he gets married in Lyon, then it's in Brindas that he spends his honeymoon ! The mayor of Brindas himself, with his tricolour shoulder sash, was a character during the great hours of Guignol. And some still remember the departure of Guignol for the Moon... from the aerodrome in Brindas !!

So why Brindas ?
Simply because the Neichthauser family, who managed the Guignol Mourguet theatre from 1907 to 1981 had settled in Brindas towards the beginning of the XXth century, first on holiday time, then with more assiduity, since Pierre Neichthauser, who animated for a very long time the puppet of Gnafron (while his younger brother Ernest played Guignol), even became the mayor of the commune from 1929 to 1940. So Gnafron was the mayor of Brindas... in some ways !

Today, Jean-Guy Mourguet (photo on the left), the last puppeteer descendant of the family, who founded his own company in 1955, would like to see the creation of a Guignol foundation in Brindas, the village to which he bequeath his important collection of puppets.

Serge Dumonteil, February 2001 (english version : 12-2005) ©

PS : This idea made its way, the donation went to the association of villages,
and the Musée-Théâtre GUIGNOL eventually opened in Brindas in January 2008...

The Communauté de Communes des Vallons du Lyonnais
presents

The MUSÉE THEATRE GUIGNOL in BRINDAS !

The Museum :

- Presentation of the family collection Mourguet, creator of Guignol
- The complete story of the 200 years of the Guignol de Lyon
- Documentation with the archives and testimonys of five generations of "guignolists"

The Theatre :

Programming shows (puppets, or others) for adults (at 8:30pm) or for children (at 4pm)
The list is included in our Brind'AGENDA page

Practical infos :

Opened from Wednesday to Sunday
(2:30 pm > 6:30 pm)

Visit freely (4 or 3 €) or guided (6 or 5 €, on reservation)

Address : 18 montée de la Bernade, F 69126 Brindas
-Map to the Guignol Museum-theatre in Brindas-

Informations : 33 478 57 57 40

and museetheatreguignol@ccvl.fr

On-line : The musée-théâtre website (guignol.ccvl.fr)

IN THE PRESS :

"Guignol, putain, 200 ans !": Great article in Libération, with a JG Mourguet interview, out on 18-12-2007 : www.liberation.fr/...

A page on the museum-theater on the website of the CCVL (the community of communes which is now responsible for the project) : www.cc-vallonsdulyonnais.fr/decouvrir/guignol.htm

About Jean-Guy Mourguet's bequest for the "Musée de Guignol": Le Progrès du 10 Juin 2005...

About his current troupe in Brindas "Les Gones à Mourguet" : le journal du Dimanche 12 Juin 2005...

1808/2008 : GUIGNOL's bicentenary

All the scheduled events listed here by Les Amis de Guignol…
Saturday 31st May and Sunday 1st June: Fête des Castelets, au Parc de la Tête d’or (free shows from 2 to 6 pm). (See at Les amisdeguignol.free.fr/...)
Saturday 14th June, from 5 pm, Place des Terreaux : "La leçon du Montreur" (a thousand one-day puppetteers follow the lesson of Le Montreur, as shown on a giant screen)

A video presentation of Guignol, by www.culture.lyon.fr (in french..) :

Guignol, Gnafron et Madelon
sent by portail_culture_lyon.

Image on right > Gnafron, Madelon & Guignol (in a famous place of St Jean district in Le Vieux Lyon)

SOME MORE LINKS :

> A page in english about french marionettes and Guignol (on the RFI site) www.rfi.fr/actuen/articles/...

> La "Société des Amis de Guignol" (friends of Guignol) is an association which exists since 1913 : http://amisdeguignol.free.fr/index.html

> On this site of "Le Parler lyonnais" you can find some Lyonnais/Français, or Français/Lyonnais dictionaries ! (sorry, no english) http://parlerlyon.free.fr/

> The Castelbou family inventoried all kinds of Guignol traces in Lyon and elsewhere : http://castelbou.free.fr/texte/traceguignol.htm

> Le Musée Gadagne (history of Lyon & puppets of the world) is an important puppet museum in Le vieux Lyon... www.museegadagne.com

> A video document in the INA archives : www.ina.fr/archivespourtous/...
From ORTF - Rhône Alpes actualités from 4-4-1964 : Interview with Pierre LEGRAND and Ernest NEICHTHAUSER (aged 87 then and playing Guignol since 1902) who managed the theatre of the quai St Antoine (then about to be demolished).

GUIGNOL shows in LYON :
(We made a map so you can locate them)

>The Daniel Streble company "Guignol, un gone de Lyon" plays in la Croix-Rousse :
salle de la Ficelle, 65 boulevard des Canuts, Lyon 4e (Théâtre : 0472 32 11 55 Bureau/Fax : 0478 37 71 44)
www.guignol-un-gone-de-lyon.com/

> La Maison de Guignol" is at #2 montée du Gourguillon (St Jean district),
(0472 40 26 61 / 0478 37 01 67)
www.lamaisondeguignol.fr/

> Le "véritable Guignol du vieux Lyon et du parc" is another Guignol troupe privileging tradition :
(Tél : 0478 28 60 41 - Fax : 0478 39 57 03 - Tél théâtre : 0478 93 71 75)
www.theatre-guignol.com/

> And Les Zonzons
..is the company now running "le Guignol de Lyon"
at 2 rue Louis Carrand 69005 LYON (0478 28 92 57)
www.guignol-lyon.com

And they organize "Moisson d'Avril",
an international puppets biennale, 8th édition > 6/11 April 2010 www.moissondavril.com

And other GUIGNOLS elsewhere :

The Guignol du Jardin d'Acclimatation (created 1953) is the most famous of the parisian Guignols.

Les Guignols de l'Info (a TV program on Canal+, since 1988): they don't use the traditionnal Guignol puppets, but they do have the critical spirit ! (one can find recent episodes on the Canal+ site). Picture on right >>>
Their story on french Wikipédia..

A world listing of puppets theatres, on french Wikipédia too.

Some books about Guignol

(with links to Amazon.fr)

- Le Guignol lyonnais, de Tancrède de Visan et Gérard Truchet // Or original version reproduction :
- Guignol : les Mourguet, de Paul Fournel (1995) // New edition in 2008 :