French company founded in 1981 by actress and puppeteer Corinne Linden (Longeville-lès-Metz, France, 1953), playwright, director and musician Ismaïl Safwan (Alexandria, Egypt, 1955), and puppet designer Michel Klein (Strasbourg, France, 1954). In most of its productions, the company uses puppets with faces made of latex and articulated bodies rendering an amazingly realistic appearance. The presence of actors may be hidden, but tabletop manipulation is most of the time visible. Regularly selected for festivals both in France and abroad, the Strasbourg-based company has received many awards (Momix, Festival International de Marionnettes et de Formes Animées de Cannes … ).

Flash Marionnettes focuses mainly on shows for children: La Mer à boire (The Sea to Drink), Vinci, and for all audiences: L’Amour des trois oranges (The Love for Three Oranges, 1992), La Cour de tous les miracles (The Court of All Miracles, 1994). The adaptations of traditional works hold a special place in its repertoire: Le Voyage d’Ulysse (The Voyage of Ulysses); Grimm ou le conte imaginaire (Grimm, Or the Imaginary Tale); Un roman de Renart (Reynard the Fox, 2002), that wholly renders the verve of the medieval fable; and Les Pantagruéliques (The Pantagruelians, 2002), a lavish transposition of the François Rabelais epic.

The company also commissions plays from contemporary writers on themes related to current events. Humanitou (1993) is based on a text by Philippe Dorin and is inspired by the Gulf War, while Babel France (1999) from the same author celebrates a multicultural France in which Corinne Linden, by herself, plays a dozen characters presenting scenes of exile and racism. La Polyphone (The Polyphone, 2004), geared towards adults and adolescents, is a solo show created by Corinne Linden around the themes of totem and speech, in which she has conversations with figures inspired by primitive art sculptures.

(See France.)