MECHANIC: I don't understand.

ASCLEPIO: Are you functional? Can your dick still screw?

MECHANIC: You really feel like annoying everyone, right?

ASCLEPIO: Do you know that Anita is sexually unsatisfied? And now she must be fucking like mad, a madman.

MECHANIC: Don't you have anything better to do? Go away and mind your own business. Don't come and put more problems in my head because I already have too many.

ASCLEPIO: Well, if you prefer, just don't believe what I've told you. See you later.

[ASCLEPIO leaves.]

ROMULO: You can't do what I do. You can do what you do.

ANITA: Do anything, I want to watch.

ROMULO: Can you see this? What is it?

ANITA: It's a tube.

ROMULO: No, it's a mountain. You don't see correctly. Try again.

ANITA: Now you've already told me, it is a mountain.

ROMULO: But you couldn't see it, and it isn't anymore. Let me put this way, it's not only that. What else is it?

ANITA: I don't know. I think it's a beautiful rusted tube.

ROMULO: Can't you see the bark? It is a tree trunk!

ANITA: Yes, there is some resemblance. But what is this game for? Would any answer be ok?

ROMULO: Of course not. This isn't a lake. But it is your vertebrate spine.

ANITA: I know... this is a serpent! [touches and feels the tube.]

ROMULO: Right! You are picking it up!

ANITA: No, I'm not picking it up... but now it seems to be a fish... these are the scales... a fish that will jump off the water!

ROMULO: Exactly!

ANITA: It is something that can't be understood: it is a mountain, a serpent, a tree...

ROMULO: It is the plow that impregnates the earth. Treat it with care. The whole world depends on it.

ANITA: How do I take care of it?

ROMULO: It is necessary to anoint it with saliva or butter and rub it very well.

ANITA: And what will we do with it?

ROMULO: Now that you know what it is, we can do something. Which position should it be?

ANITA: Upright, of course.

ROMULO: Yes, but not in the vertical. Tilted towards the North.

ANITA: The base is linked to the ground...

ROMULO: On its top there is green...

ANITA: Above are the clouds that surround the apex!

ROMULO: Inside is the sacred fire that gushes out from its end.

ANIAT: Beautiful! Beautiful!

ROMULO: Divine trunk, be auspicious.

MECHANIC: Yes? What is it? Asclepio has been telling you nonsense too , right?

MASTER: Asclepio? No. It is that I saw her playing with the madman. They were burying an old tube in the ground, and covering it with leaves and flowers. She seemed to be enjoying that, taking it seriously.

MECHANIC: Well, there is nothing bad about that.

MASTER: I just wanted to let you know. Take care. [The MASTER leaves.]

ROMULO: It is also a well. In its bottom there is water.

ANITA: But it doesn't have a bottom. It is a tunnel without an end, the soul of Earth. By looking through it you can see the sky.

ROMULO: It is a mouth. Here are the teeth.

ANITA: It swallows the souls of the dead.

ROMULO: It is a drop of water from the sea.

ANITA: It is a shell. There is a pearl inside it.

ROMULO: There are shimmering treasures hidden inside.

ANITA: Its surface is moisten with drops of sweat.

ROMULO: She swallows these blue flowers.

ANITA: Here is a mirror. And she is her own reflection.

ROMULO: It is the bridge of energy between the sky and the Earth.

ANITA: The sky fertilizes the Earth with the falling rain.

ROMULO: A chain of crystal flakes descends through a tube of light.

ANITA: From the Earth grows the flowers, which thank the skies for the rain.

ROMULO: Vapors arise, and the water returns to the sky.

ANITA: Sky and Earth are linked and united.

ROMULO: These are the branches and roots that spread and link the tree to the world.

ANITA: It is light that binds our eyes.

MECHANIC: It is strange... they should have been here! I feel they are near by. But I can't find them.

[The MECHANIC and ASCLEPIO leave.]

ROMULO: This one, whom I place on top and worship is the Sun. Look how he shines. He's made of living gold. [a wheel or gear.]

ANITA: I can feel the heat of his rays on me... I can't touch him, he would burn me!

ROMULO: He will wound and kill you if you approach him in an improper manner. You must approach from the front. And worship him before you touch him.

ANITA: Lord, friend, my heat, source of my ardor! Here I am, and I want to dive into your light, and receive and feel your energy vibrating inside me! Be kind to me, for I know you can destroy me!

ROLUMO: The others who see him might not recognize him! Let's show them who he really is. Let's dress him with his rays which make the herb in the fields to shoot.

ANITA: His rays are beams of wheat.

ROMULO: His gleam is this bunch of white flowers that bud from his face.

ANITA: Oh Sun, my God, there is no beauty compared to you.

ROMULO: He smiles at us, can you see? He thanks our attention. We've worshiped him. Farewell, master and friend!

ANITA: So long, my Lord!

ROMULO: The Machine! Do you want to build it?

ANITA: Yes, I would like to. I'd like to see the whole, the unity.

ROMULO: The Machine! You want to build it! For so many centuries I've been waiting for this day, the day I would meet a mate for the Great Work! From now on you will have a new name: you will be called Iza. And this name will mean: "the one who searches for infinity".

IZA: [Shouting] Iza, my name is Iza.

ROMULO: I've been here for so long, just to assemble the Great Machine... and only now somebody asks me to do that... we will build it, Iza.

IZA: Let's collect all the pieces.

ROMULO: Yes, let's hasten. Today it will be completed!

IZA: Why haven't you built it yet?

ROMULO: I can't do it by myself. Two people must die in order to put it together. One alone couldn't do the job.

IZA: So, we will die? But I want to live!

ROMULO: Don't try to understand it and stop the movement! Let's go!

IZA: Let's go!

[IZA and ROMULO leave.]

ANA: [whispering] Mechanic!

NELSON: [whispering] Listen!

ANA: We saw them both!

NELSON: They were in the museum!

MECHANIC: But how could...!? I passed by there several times! Were they hiding?

ANA: No.

NELSON: Yes.

ANA: They were there.

NELSON: Next to the lobby.

MECHANIC: By the museum lobby there is no place where they could have hidden. I would have seen them

ANA: They didn't want to be seen by you.

NELSON: They were gathering all the pieces of the Great Machine.

ANA: They are going to build it.

NELSON: Or they have already built it.

MECHANIC: If she is there I will go get her.

ANA: Don't go.

NELSON: Asclepio is there.

ANA: He is watching them.

MECHANIC: Anita hasn't come home tonight. I'm not going to wait anymore, I'll go look for her.

ANA: Anita doesn't exist anymore.

NELSON: But when she died, Iza was born.

ANA: And soon she will have no name to be called.

[ASCLEPIO comes in thoughtful,]

ASCLEPIO: I saw them, Mechanic, they are in the museum.

MECHANIC: What are they doing there? Why didn't you bring Anita with you?

ASCLEPIO: I didn't think of it. I was just observing. [pause] They were assembling the Great Machine.

MECHANIC: So what? That doesn't interest me. Have you forgotten that we were looking for Anita to bring her back home?

ASCLEPIO: She surely will not come except by force. And that I wouldn't do.

ANA: [from the dark] There was a meaning.

NELSON: They were doing strange things.

ASCLEPIO: They were handling the pieces with tenderness, they were talking to them and uniting them according to absurd guidelines... by the similarity of texture, taste, shape...

ANA: The pieces are alive.

NELSON: They gave them souls.

ASCLEPIO: They added flowers, and then they stood in the middle of the assembled parts... they attached pieces to their bodies and entered into the mechanism...

ANA: They are part of the machine.

NELSON: It's all a single thing.

[NELSON and ANA disappear.]

ASCLEPIO: I spent hours observing them without being noticed. I don't believe that the connections they've done are going to work, but everything really impressed me. I'd like to understand... it is as if there was something hidden, behind all of that...

[The MECHANIC enters slowly carrying some papers. He stops.]

MECHANIC: Asclepio!

ASCLEPIO: Didn't you find them?

MECHANIC: No... They weren't there.

ASCLEPIO: You must be blind!

MECHANIC: But there were some things written, around there... on the walls, on a piece of paper, on the floor and on a dry leaf. Looks like it was written with blood. It was Anita's handwriting.

ASCLEPIO: And what was written there?

MECHANIC: I copied it. Listen:

"The work is complete. The union was perfect, and now that which is inside is like that which is outside."

"The great light approaches. I tremble with fear, anxiety, however I walk towards it. It burns me, destroys me and now I am also light."

"Now everything shall start. The great march towards the other shore that I have foreseen. I shall not be a serpent, a horse or a lion. That which has no name, that I shall be."

"Now I leave this world. Goodbye my Mechanic! Goodbye Asclepio, Marta, Anita. I follow my dream and I walk towards the woods and the stars."

[NELSON and ANA appear.]

NELSON: They crossed the barriers.

MECHANIC: They went towards the swamp!

ANA: The Great Machine disappeared.

MECHANIC: They're gone! Anita has become totally mad!

ASCLEPIO: I can't believe that. No, neither of them is mad. They are not like us, but they are not mad.

[MARTA enters; the MECHANIC in pain doesn't notice.]

MARTA: What has happened to Anita?

ASCLEPIO: She and Romulo spent the whole night assembling the Great Machine. And they did it. Now, they have crossed the borderline.

MARTA: However, they can't be too far. Can't you stop them?

ASCLEPIO: No. We can't reach them Marta. Look, let me try to explain. I think I understand it. I can't apprehend the details, but I know they are far sounder them us. Look Marta, in one day they have accomplished what I always wished! That which I deemed impossible, they've made it. They've reached perfection and beauty, and by those means, happiness.

MARTA: How did they do it?

ASCLEPIO: It's too complicated, or too simple to be conceptually understood. They used parts of the mind and body that I've never though of. They used the unconscious, emotions and intuitions. They used their mouths, skin and hair. They used everything to assemble the Machine, and now they are free. Romulo maybe already was before, but now Anita is also free. No, not Anita. It was Iza who found freedom.

MARTA: And what is this Machine?

ASCLEPIO: It has no significance and it doesn't exist without them. Only its construction is what matters. And every person would have to find out how to build it.

MARTA: Then were you right about the function of the Machine?

ASCLEPIO: No, I couldn't understand it correctly. Now I think I know it, but I can only say very little. It's function is to link us to the universe, to allow us to partake of the energies of the great cosmic evolution. It destroys stagnation, breaks the barriers and takes us to the New World.

MECHANIC: All I know is that they are far away. They followed their dream and crossed the borderline. Maybe they are dead or have gone mad by now.

MARTA: You don't believe that. You pretend to believe, but you have no faith in it. You've always thought they were mad from the beginning.

MECHANIC: Maybe. But if they could only come back I would try to understand them,

MARTA: Understand them, as Asclepio?

MECHANIC: Maybe; [pause] or as Yuri.

MARTA: Yuri?

YURI: Yes, that's my name.

ASCLEPIO: "If they could only come back..." why bother with that? We've had an opportunity and we didn't learn all we needed.

MARTA: They'll come back, I know.

ASCLEPIO: Hoping is a pleasant thing.

MARTA: One day I will shout: "They are back Asclepio!"

[The three BUFFOONS come in.]

BUFFOONS: They are back Asclepio!

ASCLEPIO: When? Where are they?

BUFFOON#1: Romulo and Iza.

BUFFOON#2: Have arrived to the village.

MARTA: How are they?

BUFFOON#1: Happy.

BUFFOON#3: Could they be otherwise?

BUFFOON#2: They hung a beautiful stone wrapped in liana and red flowers on the Master's window.

BUFFOON#3: They brought news from the Other World.

ASCLEPIO: What do they tell us from there?

BUFFOON#1: They say it doesn't exist.

BUFFOON#2: That the whole universe is here.

BUFFOON#3: That there is no swamp to cross.

YURI: That's not possible. What about all the madmen who came form there?

BUFFOON#1: Romulo says they are not mad.

BUFFOON#2: And that they've never came from any place.

BUFFOON#3: Actually they are just like us.

YURI: But where are they? I want to see them, I want to see how Anita is doing.

BUFFOON#1: Anita is dead.

BUFFOON#2: Forget about her.

YURI: I wish to understand them. I want them to guide me and show me their world.

BUFFOON#1: They may take you.

BUFFOON#2: But won't guide you.

BUFFOON#3: They surely won't.

YURI: Do they despise me like that? Look, it is essential to tell them that I only want to learn, that I have nothing against them.

BUFFOON#1: We can tell them.

BUFFOON#2: But they’ll teach you nothing.

BUFFOON#3: They certainly won’t.

YURI: Am I mistaken about them? How can they refuse accepting me? Tell me, are they angry at me?

BUFFOON#1: No, they are not.

BUFFOON#2: They like you.

BUFFOON#3: They'll be glad to see you.

YURI: So, how can they hold from me this happiness since they have already reached it? Why can't they guide me, why can't they teach me how to be like them?

[IZA and ROMULO enter.]

ROMULO: If there is no guide, how can somebody be guided?

IZA: If there is nothing to learn, how can we teach you something?

ROMULO: We have nothing, except love.

IZA: Give me a hug. Don't ask us for anything else. [hugs YURI.]

ROMULO: You don't need anything.

ASCLEPIO: It's nice to see you again. Only now I understand what you've done.

IZA: And what have we done?

ASCLEPIO: It is useless trying to explain it. If I try, you will make me confused and tell me that it isn't right. But it's necessary to explain. It's all done. You've assembled the Great Machine.

MARTA: Where is it?

ROMULO: That? That one doesn't interest us anymore.

MARTA: Where did you leave it?

ROMULO: It is here.

IZA: There are other ones to bring together. The village is full of disjoined things and people.

ROMULO: There is no end in time.

IZA: The assembling must continue, always renewed, at every moment, with new people and new pieces.

ROMULO: I saw evergreens near the pigsty. And there is a beautiful broken bottle out there.

[MARTA and ASCLEPIO are in scene. Silence.]

MARTA: Why don't you follow them?

ASCLEPIO: I'm thinking about it.

MARTA: Don't you want to learn with them?

ASCLEPIO: Yes, I do.

MARTA: No, you don't. You can't.

ASCLEPIO: I do.

MARTA: No, you're unable to do that. Don't try.

ASCLEPIO: Why not?

MARTA: Because you understood them. Following them now would be no madness. It would be like playing with marked trumps.

ASCLEPIO: Yes, I would understand everything they do. But I'd still be an outsider, an observer.

MARTA: That wouldn't be honest.

ASCLEPIO: That wouldn't work. That... I don't know. Actually I can't go with them. For that I would have to be in a state of madness, and I can't do it. I can only understand and admire them.

MARTA: Yes. I can't go either.

ASCLEPIO: You are my sister. You are like me.

MARTA: Yes, we think on the same way. It wouldn't work for us.

ASCLEPIO: But many other people can go.

MARTA: Yes, many who are around here. We can at least show them the way. It is also a beautiful role, isn't is?

ASCLEPIO: [Turning to the audience:] All of you, what are you doing there?

MARTA: Friends, you are in the wrong place. The right place is out there.

ASCLEPIO: Iza and Romulo are by the Theatre's exit playing.

MARTA: Whoever feels like going there to play with them just do it. Really, anybody may go.

ASCLEPIO: No, not really. Look: not everyone can play with them.

MARTA: You must believe they are mad. You must distrust them, you should doubt everything they do. You should not have understood a word of what Asclepio has said.

ASCLEPIO: You should believe that their games will not take you anywhere.

MARTA: But, in fact, you must feel that their madness is beautiful.

ASCLEPIO: And you should dive into it, with your body and soul.

MARTA: All those who are able to go, please go.

[The theater lights are turned on.]

ASCLEPIO: Only those who agree with me please stay. Those who agree that they should leave, but can't do it.

MARTA: Only those who are unable to play, please stay.

ASCLEPIO: Those like us.

MARTA: Like us. [long pause] What about this person? What about us?

ASCLEPIO: Romulo's way is proscribed to us.

MARTA: Would there be another way?

ASCLEPIO: As straight forward as this one, no.

MARTA: Would there be another? [pause]

ASCLEPIO: I don't think so. Anyhow, we can still help them, talk about them, bring more people to meet them.

MARTA: If you couldn't understand them...

ASCLEPIO: It's not possible to follow their way if it is understood and reduced to reason.

MARTA: If there was another way, an absurd way...

ASCLEPIO: Only faith in the absurd can lead to freedom.

MARTA: [Rejoicing] There is somebody we may follow.

ASCLEPIO: Who?

MARTA: Somebody we can't trust. Somebody whose ideas and methods are absurd and lead to nothing.

ASCLEPIO: There are many like that. But we wouldn't be able to follow them because we are rationalists. For example, would you follow the Master?

MARTA: No, but there is at least one person whom we could follow.

ASCLEPIO: I doubt it.

MARTA: It is Asclepio.

ASCLEPIO: Me? How could I follow myself?

MARTA: You can. And you should.

ASCLEPIO: I don't know if I understand... [begins to rejoice.]

MARTA: Neither do I. But look what a strange idea came to me: since you can't follow Romulo, we know that you are a perfect idiot.

ASCLEPIO: I agree.

MARTA: We have arrived to the conclusion that thinking is not the way to happiness.

ASCLEPIO: I agree.

MARTA: Therefore it is useless to continue doing what you always used to do.

ASCLEPIO: Exactly!

MARTA: And therefore we want to change. Let's do something absurd instead of being rational. And that absurd thing that we'll do is to be rational to the last consequences.

ASCLEPIO: And that won't take us anywhere! [They hug each other]

MARTA: Isn't it beautiful? Isn't this our way?

ASCLEPIO: It's very beautiful... it's our only way out.

MARTA: Wrong. We have no way out. We're lost.

ASCLEPIO: So let's dive heads into it!

MARTA: Body and soul!

ACSLEPIO: Let's get to the bottom of this bottomless thing. Let's develop our rationality, intelligence, and help others to do the same, even though we know that it won't lead to happiness.

MARTA: Yes. And since it's an absurd that it would lead to happiness, of course it will take us there.

ASCLEPIO: It's clear. And since it's clear it won't work.

MARTA: [To the audience:] Dear public! The play is over.

ASCLEPIO: We won't act anymore. The show is over. Enough of theatre. Now we have better things to do.

MARTA: Maybe some of you must have found our last conversation completely mad.

ASCLEPIO: Whoever wants to join us in our madness, please stay here to talk to us. The others may leave.

MARTA: Please stay only those who don't understand well our dream but would like to follow it.

ASCLEPIO: Only those who would like to participate in the construction of the Great Machine should stay here with us.