Questions and their opposite

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We start the piece wrapped in a blanket in the left-hand corner of the stage. In fact, everything is dark, and Wagner enters the scene with a candle and a glass of water in his hands. Wagner gives the cup with water to Sheila. Gustavo and Wagner watch her, but the look does not search for anything (neither in the drink, nor in Sheila). All three are dressed in clothes full of volume, brilliant.

When Sheila finishes drinking water, Wagner touches her hair tenderly. Gustavo looks at the two, but does not understand the gesture. Wagner takes Sheila by the arm to the center of the stage. Wagner holds her legs and climbs her body until he can hold the arm of Gustavo. When Gustavo feels that there are four hands holding his arm, he gets scared and screams. Wagner and Sheila laugh and hold their heads close together. Gustavo holds the four hands of Sheila and Wagner and thinks, in his head, that they are a beast. He thinks, looking up: "You are a beast." Sheila listens to a composition by Philip Glass, and the movement of the three never stops. The three avoid creating images, because things are around. Wagner runs his hand over Sheila’s skirt, and Gustavo leaves them alone. He sees something else at the back of the stage and goes to it. Gustavo gets closer to what he thought was there to see if he can understand it. Meanwhile, Sheila and Wagner exchange a kiss. Sheila kisses Wagner’s forearm, and he finds it very good. Wagner gets up, walks over to where Gustavo is and kisses his forearm. Sheila looks at her forearm. (The three never observe one other so as not to destroy what is being built among them.) Wagner takes a break and changes the CD. Sheila remembers that she would like to dance something that is done on the ground, like the Snakes Dance or the Modern Dance. Wagner turns his face away so as not to see this part of the dream, Gustavo smokes a cigarette, still looking for something that should be around. Another cigarette falls from the sky. Sheila gets tired and turns into a snake. Wagner gets down on all fours and thinks about Elza Soares. He imagines that to dance the samba is good, but he listens to Philip Glass. Gustavo remembers that he’s fat and that he needs a haircut, that he did not turn off the computer before leaving the house and did not lock the kitchen door. Sheila pretends to be dead.

Wagner takes three steps forward and raises his hands to heaven. Sheila is in her panties and goes to the center of the stage while a digital sound of a crowd comes out of the speakers and a globe of light illuminates at high-speed the movement of her hair. Gustavo screams, but no one listens to him because he is not there. Wagner continues to think how nice it would be around Gustavo and Sheila. Gustavo brings a glass of water to Wagner. While Wagner drinks the water, Gustavo and Sheila stare in his direction, but they do not look at Wagner nor even at the glass of water, they observe the beyond. Sheila thinks of her Grandma Isabel, who died, Gustavo thinks about the father of Elisabeth Finger, who died. Wagner thinks of nothing. He only drinks water. Wagner shoves the empty glass in his mouth. The mouth is wide open. Gustavo and Sheila decide to do other things. Gustavo holds Wagner’s arm and leads him to the center of the stage. Sheila holds Wagner’s legs and climbs his body until she can hold the two arms of Gustavo. When he feels that there are four hands holding onto his arm, Gustavo shouts ‘God’ in Yoruba. No one understands the scream, but they can feel it because it was wet and full of joy. Sheila and Wagner tremble to the neck and then change the subject. Sheila gets up to see something at the back of the stage and smokes a straw cigarette that falls from the sky. Wagner remembers a dance he loves while he is on the ground and begins to sing. Gustavo does not care for them. Sheila screams. Nobody understands, because nobody is there. Gustavo thinks that everything in this life is very simple, then says loudly: "Life is very simple." Wagner continues to sing. Sheila changes the CD. She misses them both. Wagner hugs Gustavo and kisses him on the mouth. Sheila brings a glass of water to Gustavo while listening to an opera. The three hear an opera very happily. The three realize that they are dreaming as when they were teenagers. The light goes off. The light goes on. The light goes off and remains off for a little more time. The audience can only hear our breathing and the opera coming out of an iPhone and not from a CD player. When the light goes on, Wagner, Sheila and Gustavo are drinking water. That was all that was missing.

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Translated with Benjamin Trivers