French company created in 1978 by Alain Le Bon, actor, puppeteer, writer and stage director (b.1949) and by Michelle Gauraz. Having inherited the traditions of the “théâtre des courants d’air” (open air theatres), Cirkub’U revived the fairground tradition and the verve of the glove puppet with Poulchinelle (“son” of Pulcinella and Polichinelle). In his travelling Boîte à théâtre (Box Theatre), Alain Le Bon personifies the irreverent fair barker who uses the grotesque to make disrespectful speeches about life and death.

Punch (1984), his first production, was followed by a trilogy entitled, “Les Marionnettes n’ont pas de cimetière” (Puppets Have No Cemeteries): Punch ou l’Autre Don Juan (Punch, Or the Other Don Juan, 1984 and 1987), La Tentation d’exister ou la Comique Illusion (The Temptation to Exist, Or the Comic Illusion, 1991), and Les Horizons funèbres ou le Voyage sans retour (The Funereal Horizons, Or the Voyage of No Return, 1995). He has also performed La Ballade de Poulchinelle (The Ballad of Poulchinelle, 1997) and Armand le Poête ou le Début du monde (Armand the Poet, Or the Beginning of the World, 2001) by Patrick Dubost.

In 1988, he founded the Centre des rencontres de la maison de Polichinelle de Saintes (Meeting Centre of the House of Polichinelle de Saintes) in the Charente-Maritime region.

(See France.)