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