As he tidies up an empty stage, the Sweeper is tempted to experiment with the magic power of the theatre--to create life through the exercise of imagination. After a few preliminary tries in summoning up a rabbit and an elephant, the Sweeper plunges ahead and creates a Young Man and a Young Woman. Then, as ever more characters are called for, events begin to go beyond his bewildered control. The most potent forces in human life and society--love, hate, politics, religion--emerge and dominate, and with them the bickering, dissension and decadence which they can engender.5 women, 12 men
