The Balcony

In the same room, a woman known as the Thief is bound and nude from the waist down. She is being questioned by two men: the Judge and the Executioner. The Thief has been accused of stealing bread. The Judge interrogates her about the details of the crime, and why she found it necessary to steal. When the Thief confesses, the Judge breaks the role-play momentarily, coaching her on how she should deliver her lines. He says that if she cannot play a proper thief, then he cannot play a proper judge. The Executioner asks for clarification of his own role, then they resume their roles. Outside there is machine gun fire. They break character again, alluding to the facts that the Chief of Police has been missing for hours, and that a nearby bridge was bombed the night before. As the scene ends, the Judge is crawling towards the Thief. 

A man called the General is in the room with Irma. He is dressed in street clothes and is worried that the Girl is going to be late. Irma assures him that she will arrive soon and will help him dress in his General’s costume in preparation for his funeral. When the Girl arrives, she is out of breath and her clothes are torn. It is unclear whether this is a role she is playing, or if she has actually been menaced out on the street. Irma leaves. The Girl, as she dresses The General, tells him that the Chief of Police is proving ineffective—he has done nothing to quell the continued uprising. Between bursts of machine gun fire from outside, the Girl dresses the General for his own military funeral, while recounting the battle in which he was killed. The General refers to her as his horse throughout; the implication is that she will pull the cart onto which his body is loaded during the funeral procession. 

A small, old man is in the same room. He is dressed as tramp. As he looks at his reflection in three mirrors, the redheaded girl from the previous scene watches him remove his gloves. The door opens and Irma’s arm enters the room, handing the Girl a whip and a wig. When she dons the wig, the old man grows animated. He is obviously excited. “What about the lice?” he says, looking at the wig (28). The Girl assures him that the lice are there. 

Scene 5 is set in Irma’s room. Irma is looking through a window into the studios. Carmen is in the room with her, going over Irma’s accounts. Machine gun fire sounds outside. Irma says there is still no sign of the Chief of Police, whom she now refers to as George. She is concerned that Carmen is sad. Carmen says that Irma knows nothing about the plight of the girls who work for her. Because she has never served the clients, she has no idea what it does to the girls’ souls. Carmen says that she wants to go visit her daughter, who is “in a real garden” (32). Irma tells her that if she tries to get to her daughter, she’ll be killed in the rebellion.

There is a buzz at the window. Irma uses a closed-circuit device to look into the studios. It is clear that she has all of her rooms under observation. She watches a man posing as a legionnaire fall to his knees, killed (in role-play) by one of her girls, who throws what is supposedly a poisoned dart at him. Irma says that she has a client who is interested in Carmen. The man wants her to pose as Saint Theresa. Carmen asks what she will have to do. Before she can answer, they hear the most aggressive gunfire yet. Irma says that they will be surrounded before George can arrive.

There is a knock at the door. The character known formerly as the Executioner enters. (He will be called Arthur from now on.) Arthur says that a large piece of the city has now been taken by the rebels. Irma tells him that she wants him to go into the city and find George. This makes him nervous but he agrees, and crawls out of the room.

George (known also as the Chief of Police) enters. He and Irma discuss the rebellion outside, and begin hinting that it is part of the game. But the Chief of Police grows serious. He believes that the rebels are starting to believe their roles and may become dangerous if they forget that they are merely part of an illusion. Irma says she misses the time when she and the Chief of Police loved each other. She reminisces about the times when she cradled him in her arms, then begins to goad him about Arthur. She says that she has always resented him for making her keep Arthur at the brothel to protect her. When she talks about how impressive Arthur’s body is, the Chief of Police slaps her.

Carmen enters, saying that the rebels are outside and the city has been overrun. Arthur enters and says the same thing. The window shatters as a bullet from outside comes through the glass and into Arthur’s head. Arthur falls to the ground.