EXTRACT

ACT 1

SCENE 1

HAIR SALON 
Half of the area is like the Museum of last century’s first hair salons, the other half is a wardrobe. On the wall there are portraits of Proust, Picasso, Joyce and Modigliani, with a tuft of hair decorating their upper lip as a false mustache. 

ROSA: (35 years old, from Africa) Misuko, it would be nice if... Go out please... (shoos the cat away) ...if you could take over Voa’s wife (uses her hands to describe something strange), ok? 
MISUKO: (Japanese, 27 years old) Okay... (she bends over and holds her ankles) ROSA: (observes her, opens the curtains, mumbling) It is impossible to understand, how every person moves on… (Misuko does something reminiscent of Butoh, on the floor. Lights go out)

SCENE ​2
 
Rosa and Misuko each have a doll on their chair, they cut and comb the wigs of each doll. 
ROSA: Did you read anything interesting? 
MISUKO: Schopenhauer... a dog ... it's like a pin ... you try to close your eyes and you feel him there ... up all night! 
ROSA: Schopenhauer (laughs loudly) a dog! Oh God, no, not good for you, I mean it! 
MISUKO: (She kisses her, bends behind the chair, taking the wig with her. When she gets up, she looks like Mrs. Voa, she goes forward, takes the doll, puts it aside and sits down, then comes Rosa and begins to comb it.) 
ROSA: You know, you scare me a little when you do that. Anyway, do you want a gum made of coke leaves? (she pulls it out of her mouth and gives it to Misuko). 
MISUKO: I think I heard Mrs. Voa's car. Do you think she will take it well? 
ROSA: She likes you, I told her that you read “I ravaged” and you loved it... and anyway, if she was a normal person, maybe… 
MISUKO: (Reciting) “I ravaged the light, the wind, everything that gave life I ravaged like a pirate, now nothing is floating on the horizon, the wave is silent, the wind is still, I, the fossil on the rock, inside the dark cave, I expect something. What am I expecting?”... 
ROSA: Did she not get the Nobel prize for this? 
MISUKO: She's here... (she goes to the door and helps a 50-year-old woman get in, she is wearing the same sling dress and the same wig). 
Ms. VOA: This damn taxi driver, I'm not talking about everyone, just my driver, he is a dishonest soul, licking his lips constantly with this cowardly tongue, stupid and narcissistic, he won’t even once say “Aren’t you the one…?” It makes no difference to him, we are all the same. 
ROSA: Misuko knows the whole paragraph by heart, and… Oh, look! The reception outfit is the new fashion, you are it! 
MISUKO: I have things to propose for today, sit down and I’ll be right back ... 
Ms. VOA: She’s so energetic, what happened? 
ROSA: Mandelyn, now that she’s gone, please sit down and let’s talk for a while. I went to the man you sent me, with the nice house. He told me that you do not have to pay, but if there is a leak, he will not take responsibility. 
Ms. VOA: That bastard! Then I cannot go! 
ROSA: No, since you deny disguise... 
Ms. VOA: Too bad, and I loved one that was standing like a pillar... 
ROSA: Mandelyn, you'll get in trouble! Everybody knows you there, and... 
Ms. VOA: And where to go? First they make you a hero and then they ask you not to be yourself. 
ROSA: I'll arrange for you, come back now because Misuko is here. 
MISUKO: Do not listen to Rosa, I will transform you, and you will be yourself! 
ROSA: Motherfucker, she was eavesdropping! 
Ms. VOA: Calm down. Misuko, I do not like exaggerations, not blue, not red. Now that I think about it, can we eliminate them completely? 
ROSA: The hair? 
MISUKO: Woah! 
Ms. VOA: She liked it, it's an amazing idea... and I continue, you got the beggar's clothes from the Opera? 
ROSA: I’ve got it somewhere. 
Ms. VOA: That one! Go get it, along with the rest ... 
MISUKO: Did I tell you that she won the Oscar? 
ROSA: (speaking in low voice). Shut up! It's not funny. (she goes to check out the street) Shut it all down... 
(Misuko closes the curtains, turs off lights, and they all hide behind the furniture). 

SCENE ​3

Ms. VOA: (in low voice) Now the beggar is entering? 
ROSA: Do not talk! (The scary figure of a beggar enters the shop) 
BEGGAR SIR: I am Beggar Sir, I cough! And I call for your attention, I camouflage the self, the one that, in the kingdom of beauty, is an intruder, I laugh, though an orphan of ornaments and pleasures, but my prosecuted soul... 
(STOP! A honk sound is heard) 
Ms. VOA: He’s got nice lines. “My persecuted soul”. So, now what? Let’s go, tey stopped. 
(They appear on the stage, the assistant director enters) 
ASSISTANT DIRECTOR: We have a problem. First of all, you only listen, do not talk, please! And you, my friend, what with that? Your soul is persecuted, not prosecuted! BEGGAR: Are you talking to me (in a low tone), miss Pervert? 
ASSISTANT DIRECTOR: Yes, to you, Sir. Where is your problem? Here (points to his head). And watch your mouth. Mrs. Voa should go to the makeup department and someone tell her that if she talks again, she’s out, thank you! Go on, Sir! 
BEGGAR: I'm going to check out the text, excuse me! 
ASSISTANT DIRECTOR: Five minutes... Let’s take five minutes, everyone. 
Ms. VOA: Some people are underestimating us here, and I do not like that. 
MISUKO: She’s listening to orders... 
ROSA: Like a German shepherd! 
Ms. VOA: German sheepdog. Let’s go! 
(The scene is empty, rain sounds and distant dog cries are heard. Two technicians put a glass canopy in the center of the stage, an actor who plays the Pope goes in and out of it, as he is rehearsing, somewhere in the background, there is a loud applause, laughter and voices, then silence, then baby cries and finally the voice of a parrot repeating the phrase “The most elegant to shut the door please, thanks comrades”, at least three times.)