The Balcony

Originally written in 1956, "The Balcony" is a mind-blowing trip into a menacing and hilarious world of political intrigue, violent revolution and distorted eroticism. In a city aflame with revolution, Madame Irma runs a brothel in which men from all walks of life act out S&M games while dressed up like powerful figureheads of the regime: the Bishop, the Judge and the General of the Army. The play offers perhaps the ultimate statement on the relationship between sex, power and iconography when Madame Irma and her patrons appear on the Balcony in their costumes in order to calm the city after its royal palace and rulers are destroyed. Outside the brothel, an uprising threatens to engulf the streets.