The Public Summary

The Public Summary

First act

The director is sitting in his bedroom. The maid announces that the public had arrive. In they come four white horses playing their trumpets. The director, crying, kicks them away. The horses offer all they have to let them stay but the director asks his maid for a whip. The horses start dancing furiously while they play their trumpets while the director finally yells: “Get out”, “Outdoor theater”. The maid announces the arrival of the public again, but this time it is not horses but four bearded man dressed alike that enter. The director changes his wig. The men start to congratulate him for his plays and discuss their different interpretations. A room divider is brought and when the men passes through, it transform them into women, changing their names too. They start to argue as lovers would do. Elena, one of the transformed men, asks vehemently to be taken away. Once she is away, the director announces that they can “start”. The horses ask for mercy.

Second act

In a Roman ruin, there are two figures: one full of branches and another full of bells. They start to speculate about the form the other will take if the other was to take another form. It is like “romantic speculation” until they mention the case in which the Figure of the Bells ask what the Figure of Branches would be if he was a moonfish: the Figure of Branches answers: a knife. That offends the Figure of Bells. They start to argue like passionate lovers and start again the hypothetic forms they would take until they reach again the same point about the moonfish and the knife and got back to argue. The Figure of Branches plays a whistle and a kid dress in red comes down from the roof and call for the Emperor. Their get scared and worry for each other. A centurion —a high soldier of Rome— appears, spitting and singing. After him, the Emperor. They both ask which one is one. Both figures say that each of them is one. The Emperor ask the centurion to get them naked. The figure of the bells is removed and the one with the Branches appears naked and very white and the emperor hugs him. The figure of the Bells yells “Betrayal”. Finally there is a connection between the first and the second act: the director and a bearded man scream “Betrayal”.

Third act

There is a sand wall under the moon. The three men and the director are discussing the ambiguous relationship between them and transgressing the limits of what might have been understood by “manhood”. Suddenly the wall opens and it appears the tomb of Juliet in Verona. Juliet sings until a white horse appears while holding a sword. He tries to persuade her to go with him, but she refuses and a black horse enters the room and join them. Then the three white horses also enter in the room and want to sleep with Juliet. The first man and the director enters and claim that they have inaugurated the theatre under the sand. They start to discuss who still have a mask on. The director takes off his suit, under it he has a ballerina dress. A set of strange characters appear, Enrique’s dress —Enrique might be the director himself—, a pale clown and another transformation of the director, dressed with a maillot.

Fourth act

A male nurse tells the director that the people want him —the director– dead. There is commotion when the public finds out that the actress that performed Juliet was actually a boy. There is a group of students discussing the situation and different topics, one of them is if the public should be a part of the drama. The scene is left in darkness. The students light their flashlights and enter the university. A flashlight illuminates the dead face of first man. A blue curtain goes down and it appears a dummy pastor singing. In the center, there is a large closet full of white Masks of different expressions. Each Mask has its little light in front. The Dummy Pastor plays an aristón —a Little old organ— and he dances with a slow rhythm.

Fifth Act

The same decoration as in the first act, but on the left, there is a large horse's head placed on the stage. In the right, there is a huge eye and a group of trees with clouds leaning against the wall. The director enters dressed as in the first act, and with a magician who is wearing a tuxedo. He talks about what goes on every day in the cities and in the country, adding that they may have raised the curtain on truth. Soon a woman enters dressed in black searching for Gonzalo, her son —who is presumably the First man transformed. The magician plays the role of Death and tells her that her son is dead. Suddenly, the maid alerts the director that there is an audience watching them, but the director can’t understand. Then the magician grabs on the head of the horse and disappears. The last words comes from the director: “What is happening?”

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