History Theatre / TheMannequinsBall

''Бал манекенов'' can be [[https://knigogid.ru/books/439953-bal-manekenov/toread read in full here.]] Non-Russian speakers can get by with automated page translations.

The play opens at the eponymous annual ball held by the headless mannequins in France, or at least Paris. The leader of the French Socialist Party, Paul Ribandel, accidentally discovers the ball. The mannequins can't afford a credible witness and therefore non-lethally behead him. One mannequin takes the head for himself, donning it so that he can attend a human party a few blocks over. This party, the setting of the second act, is hosted by Mr. Arnaux, the owner of a car factory. Among the guests are his daughter Angelique, his competitor Frederic Levasin, Levasin's wife and Arnaux's mistress Solange Levasin, and a representative of the Bank of France named Devignard. Ribandel is invited to prevent a strike brewing in Arnaux's factories, yet Levasin wants that strike to happen so he can swipe Arnaux's customers. The mannequin posing as Ribandel is bombarded with bribes and flirtations to make the strike go one way or the other, but he doesn't understand what's going on and ends up organizing an even bigger strike at both factories with the bribes he's received. The second act ends with the mannequin being mistaken for acting improperly with Solange and the police urging the party-goers to stay inside because of the strikers taking to the streets. During the third act, the mannequin is cajoled into a friendly duel for show so that Levasin can defend his honor. The friendliness drops when Levasin and Arnaux learn that the mannequin posing as Ribandel instigated the strikes at both their factories. Just as Levasin is about to shoot the mannequin, the real Ribandel breaks past the guards and demands his head back. The mannequin happily hands it to him and gets out of the humans' mess.

The play opens at the eponymous annual ball held by the headless mannequins in France, or at least Paris. This year, a relative high amount of mannequins can attend due to social unrest that keeps the stores closed. The leader of the French Socialist Party, Paul Ribandel, accidentally discovers the ball. The mannequins can't afford a witness and thus non-lethally behead him. One mannequin takes the head for himself, donning it so that he can attend a human party a few blocks over. This party, the setting of the second act, is hosted by Mr. Arnaux, the owner of a car factory. Among the guests are his daughter Angelique, his competitor Frederic Levasin, Levasin's wife and Arnaux's mistress Solange Levasin, and a representative of the Bank of France named Devignard. Ribandel is invited to prevent a strike brewing in Arnaux's factories, yet Levasin wants that strike to happen so he can swipe Arnaux's customers. The mannequin posing as Ribandel is bombarded with bribes and flirtations to make the strike go one way or the other, but he doesn't understand what's going on and ends up organizing an even bigger strike at both factories with the bribes he's received. The second act ends with the mannequin being mistaken for acting improperly with Solange and the police urging the party-goers to stay inside because of the strikers taking to the streets. During the third act, the mannequin is cajoled into a friendly duel for show so that Levasin can defend his honor. The friendliness drops when Levasin and Arnaux learn that the mannequin posing as Ribandel instigated the strikes at both their factories. Just as Levasin is about to shoot the mannequin, the real Ribandel breaks past the guards and demands his head back. The mannequin happily hands it to him and gets out of the humans' mess.

* {{Xenofiction}}: The first act is told from the perspective of living mannequins. An example of how this manifests is in the second scene, when a female mannequin laments she's done for because hers is a flat figure and the new beauty standard is for women to have a defined bust. Her dancing partners enquires that if flat-chested female mannequins will end up in a landfill now that they're old news, will the same be true for flat-chested women. She replies that she's heard that humans do end up in landfills too, but that it's different from when a mannequin is thrown out.

''The Mannequins' Ball'', original title ''Бал манекенов'', is a [[{{Satire}} satirical]] play in three acts written by Bruno Jasieński for publication in 1931. The play was one of Jasieński's first works after obtaining Soviet citizenship in 1929. Less than a decade later in 1938, Jasieński was one of the many people targeted and murdered during the [[UsefulNotes/JosefStalin Great Purge]] and his oeuvre became forbidden until Jasieński's rehabilitation in 1955. ''The Mannequins' Ball'' therefore only had a few immediate years to be put to stage, a notable one occurring in Prague in 1933, and then had to be rediscovered decades later.

* BribeBackfire: Both Arnaux and Levasin try to bribe Ribandel. Arnaux wants him to prevent a possible strike at his factories over a five franc wage increase, while his competitor Levasin wants that strike to happen. However, they aren't talking to Ribandel -- they're talking to a mannequin wearing Ribandel's head who has no clue what's going on. And as it happens with bribes, they use words to distance themselves from the act of bribery by stating the money is their contribution to the Socialist Party and the good it does France. Representatives of the strike initiative show up later to ask Ribandel whether they should go ahead with the strike and the mannequin not only gives the go for the strike, but also arranges one at Levasin's factories. Then he hands the representatives the checks from Arnaux and Levasin and relays their words as he interpreted them: that the money is for the good the Socialist Party does. The representatives are very confused that Arnaux and Levasin would finance the strikes at their own factories, but the checks are legit.

* DrawingStraws: Once Ribandel's been beheaded, the mannequins take an interest in owning his head. To start with, the male ones decide the female ones get no claim on it because it's a male head. After theat, the interested mannequins get a pack of matches and break the head off one of the matches. The matches are thrown up and whoever catches the headless match gets to have the match.
* DuelToTheDeath: Levasin needs a duel to avenge his wife's honor after she and the mannequin posing as Ribandel are caught in a compromising situation. Levasin has no intention of harming Ribandel -- it's all just for show and tradition and two bullet holes in the ceiling are enough to clear the air. Then the news that Ribandel organized a strike at his factory and used Levasin's own bribe to finance it comes in and Levasin does resolve to shoot to kill. At the last moment, the real Ribandel comes in and the mannequin, tired of the humans' shenanigans, hands him back his head and leaves. The play ends there -- if and how the duel proceeds after that is left open.
* FalseRapeAccusation: Angelique's attempts to seduce the mannequin posing as Ribandel are met only by matter-of-fact observations in what ways her body is flawed, such as that her breasts are too small to make the dress she's wearing a good fit. Enraged, Angelique takes off her top and dares him to repeat that her breasts are too small. Of course, then her father and friends walk in. Angelique tries to save her image by announcing her and Ribandel's engagement while threatening Ribandel that if he protests she'll say he ripped off her top.
* FishOutOfWater: The mannequin with Ribandel's head firstly is a mannequin among humans and secondly a bottom rung member of the working class who suddenly gets bribes and flirty women thrown at him because everyone thinks he's Ribandel, the head of the French Socialist Party. He has no idea what's going on.

* {{Masquerade}}: The mannequins keep their liveliness a secret from humans because they are afraid their explotation will worsen and their freedoms further reined in. In the first act, the mannequins behead Paul Ribandel to keep him from revealing their secret. In the third act, a mannequin that mistakes the headless Ribandel for another mannequin tries to block his passage to the guests at Arnaux's party and urges him to stand still.
* MurderousMannequin: Mannequins get to have one ball per year to move about freely and even that is denied them if their stores or workshops stay open past their usual hours. As luck would have, there's a strike going on so many mannequins can make it to the ball this year. They mingle and share their fears of being thrown away as beauty standards change, share their frustration over having only one night for themselves, share their sorrow over missing parts, and so on. The party is disrupted when a human, the leader of the socialist workers' party, drops in in pursuit of a female mannequin he mistook for a pretty woman. His head is cut off with a giant pair of scissors to keep the mannequins' secret safe. A headless mannequin claims the head for himself and takes a chance to visit the humans' ball some blocks over. He's mistaken for the labor leader and bribed all night until the headless body of the real labor leader crashes the party to get his property back. Tired of humans, the mannequin gladly returns the head and leaps out of the window to escape.

''The Mannequins' Ball'', original title ''Бал манекенов'', is a play in three acts written by Bruno Jasieński for publication in 1931. The play was one of Jasieński's first works after obtaining Soviet citizenship in 1929. Less than a decade later in 1938, Jasieński was one of the many people targeted and murdered during the [[UsefulNotes/JosefStalin Great Purge]] and his oeuvre became forbidden until Jasieński's rehabilitation in 1955. ''The Mannequins' Ball'' therefore only had a few immediate years to be put to stage, a notable one occurring in Prague in 1933, and then had to be rediscovered decades later.

The play opens at eponymous annual ball held by the headless mannequins in France, or at least Paris. This year, a relative high amount of mannequins can attend due to social unrest that keeps the stores closed. The leader of the French Socialist Party, Paul Ribandel, accidentally discovers the ball. The mannequins can't afford a witness and thus behead him. One mannequin takes the head for himself, donning it so that he can attend a human party a few blocks over. This party, the setting of the second act, is hosted by Mr. Arnaux, the owner of a car factory. Among the guests are his daughter Angelique, his competitor Frederic Levasin, Levasin's wife and Arnaux's mistress Solange Levasin, and a representative of the Bank of France named Devignard. Ribandel is invited to prevent a strike brewing in Arnaux's factories, yet Levasin wants that strike to happen so he can swipe Arnaux's customers.

Discussion of ''The Mannequins' Ball'' inevitably compares it to ''Theatre/{{RUR}}'', a play that is only a decade older, from a comparable cultural background, and also about constructs as a secondary working class.

''Бал манекенов'' can be [[https://knigogid.ru/books/439953-bal-manekenov/toread read in full here.]] Non-Russian speakers can get by with automated page translation.

* AssholeVictim: Paul Ribandel is a sleazy womanizer (and corrupt politician). He ends up at the Mannequins' Ball because he catcalls and pursues a female mannequin that he mistakes for a woman. The female mannequin is very distraught he wouldn't leave her alone, even when she started running. Ribandel gets beheaded so he won't rat out the mannequins, which is a fate he earned fair and square. To be clear, Ribandel's beheading ultimately doesn't kill him, but literally leaves him headless and therefore as peculiar and bottom rung as the mannequins.
* {{Bathos}}: The mannequins' absurd perspective on several serious issues creates entertaining contrast, but the main event is Ribandel's beheading. It is threatening, from the way Ribandel is kept in place by the impromptu guards to the size-based KangarooCourt that convicts him, until the means to behead is brought in: a furniture-sized pair of tailor's scissors. And then Ribandel doesn't even die from being beheaded and runs after his head as it rolls away.

%%* BlackTieInfiltration:

The play opens at eponymous annual ball held by the headless mannequins in France, or at least Paris. All mannequins are secretly alive, but those with heads consider themselves too good to associate with the headless ones and never join the celebration. This year, a relative high amount of mannequins can attend due to social unrest that keeps the stores closed. However, the leader of the workers' movement, Paul Ribandel, accidentally attends the ball. The mannequins can't afford to let a witness go and thus behead him. One mannequin is intrigued and takes the head for himself, donning it so that he can attend the humans' ball a few blocks over.

Discussion of ''The Mannequins' Ball'' inevitably compares it to ''Theatre/{{RUR}}'', a play that is only a decade older, from a comparable cultural background, and also about constructs.

Arnaux Frederic Levasin Devignard Angelique Solange

* AssholeVictim: Paul Ribandel walks into the Mannequins' Ball while catcalling and pursuing a female mannequin that he mistakes for a woman. The female mannequin is very distraught he wouldn't leave her alone, even when she started running. Discovering the Mannequins' Ball is what gets Ribandel beheaded so he won't rat out the mannequins, which is a fate he deserves more than if he hadn't harassed the female mannequin.
* {{Bathos}}: The mannequins' absurd perspective on several serious issues creates entertaining contrast, but the main event is Ribandel's beheading. It is threatening, from the way Ribandel is kept in place by the impromptu guards to the size-based KangarooCourt to convict him, until the means to behead is brought: a furniture-sized pair of tailor's scissors. And then Ribandel doesn't even die from being beheaded and runs after his head as it rolls away.

%%* {{Masquerade}}:

%%* OffWithHisHead:

* {{Xenofiction}}: The story is told from the perspective of living mannequins, which always is of importance to the narrative but is especially prominent during the first act when the mannequins' ball is in full swing and the mannequins showcase their world views in conversations with one another. A notable example is the first act's second scene. A female mannequin laments she's done for because hers is a flat figure and the new beauty standard is for women to have a defined bust. Her dancing partners enquires that if flat-chested female mannequins will end up in a landfill now that they're old news, will the same be true for flat-chested women. She replies that she's heard that humans do end up in landfills too, but that it's different from when a mannequin is thrown out.

''The Mannequins' Ball'', original title ''Бал манекенов'', is a play in three acts written by Bruno Jasieński for publication in 1931. The play was one of Jasieński's first works after obtaining Soviet citizenship in 1929. Despite being a popular writer, ''The Mannequins' Ball'' was put to stage only a few times in the years after publication, a notable one occurring in Prague in 1933. The reason for this is that Jasieński was one of the many people targeted and murdered during the [[UsefulNotes/JosefStalin Great Purge]] in the latter half of the 1930s.

Any discussion of ''The Mannequins' Ball'' inevitably compares it to ''Theatre/{{RUR}}'' for its themes and roughly similar cultural context. The play opens at eponymous annual ball held by the headless mannequins. All mannequins are secretly alive, but those with heads consider themselves too good to associate with the headless ones and never join the celebration. This year, a relative high amount of mannequins can attend due to social unrest that keeps the stores closed. However, the leader of the workers' movement, Paul Ribandel, accidentally attends the ball. The mannequins can't afford to let a witness go and thus behead him. One mannequin is intrigued and takes the head for himself, donning it so that he can attend the humans' ball a few blocks over.

%%* AssholeVictim:

* HopeSpot: Paul Ribandel, upon walking into the ball, notices that all attendants are headless mannequins. He freaks out, but because it doesn't make sense, because mannequins just aren't alive, he reasons he's at a masquerade ball with a peculiar but admittedly creative theme. Happy with his own explanation, he compliments the mannequins for their originality, only to be met with very tense silence.