■Prologue The Drifters
Men and women come carrying six trunks. They are travelers. At
one point, the women become puppets. Men: Maidens and puppets
and prostitutes are basically just one thing.
■Scene 1 The Doctor Said
The men don black clothes and become puppeteers. The women -
who have become puppets - begin to act out the tale of a family:
"Among us, there is one mad person in this family".
■Scene 2 Introduction
"Cross-eyed, lying Grandfather", "Cat maniac Grandmother",
"Father, who stammers and fears facing others", "Big
sister Mayu, who likes men and believes 'Life is only a one-act
puppet play'", and "Big brother Takashi, who has captured
a butterfly", are introduced by the heroine of this tale,
"Little, polio-afflicted sister Ran". Although they
all have their peculiarities, they make a very fine family.
■Scene 3 Secret Talk
Grandfather proposes to Grandmother; "We could secretly
kill the mad one to save the name and honor of the family."
■Scene 4 Life is Only a One
■Scene 5 The Definition of Madness
Ran reads from the World Encyclopedia. "Insanity, or Schizophrenia.
This illness is caused most often by genealogical factors. Statistics
prove that when one parent has obvious schizophrenia, this illness
is twenty times more likely to occur than in normal members of
society. The risk is doubled in cases of one's children's cousins."
■Scene 6 Help Yourself
■Scene 7 Family Dinner
The family eats dinner while Ran dozes. They are being driven
apart by the doctor's pronouncement. Mayu breaks a theatrical
taboo: "This is ridiculous. If we just ask the puppeteers,
then we'll soon find out who the mad one is."
■Scene 8 Papa's Dream
Papa dreams while Berlioz's Symphony "Fantastique"
plays. In his dream, "Brother" tells him "If you
don't want to be considered mad, 'imitate the others'".
■Scene 9 Search the Mad One in the
Darkness
Takashi is pressured by Grandfather, "It's okay if it's
nonsense, let's just choose the mad one and kill it".
■Scene 10 Search the Mad One in the
Darkness
A drunken Grandmother decides that Mayu, who mocked her paper
cats, is the mad one. Ran objects; "Big Sister Mayu is a
good person" to which Grandmother retorts, "There are
many good, mad people".
■Scene 11 Conversation with Puppets
and Puppeteers
Breaking the play's construction, Mayu asks the puppeteers who
the mad one is. "We too are just following the stage directions"
answer the puppeteers. Even the playwright too, influenced by
world events, is re-writing the script, so really no one knows
what will happen next.
■Scene 12 Who is the Mad One?
■Scene 13 Breakfast
Grandfather declares "The mad one must be the one who does
something totally different from everyone else. We have to find
the foreign element and cut its neck with this axe". Then
the family , each fearing that they will be the one whose actions
stick out, begin to imitate each other's behavior. The family
begins to standardize themselves, and as they conform, their
personalities are killed.
■Scene 14 Going My Way
Ran: "My family are such nice, wonderful people. But they
have lost their own voices. But, I dare do exactly what I want
to. When I want to eat grapes, I eat grapes. When I want to read
a tale of pirates, I read one. I don't care if someone calls
me "the mad one". I want to sing a song of my own."
■Scene 15 Sacrifice
In response to Ran, who can't join the 'Battle of the Imitators',
and shouts "What has happened to all of you!?", the
family, possessed by madness, declares "The mad one is you!!".
As if being manipulated by something, they attack Ran, moving
as one grotesque mass. Ran's head goes flying.
Thus, the 'Tale of a Family' reaches a conclusion.
■Epilogue New Departure
Red blood flows from Ran's butchered body, proof that she was
alive. From the spilled blood of not a puppet, but from what
was a human being, once more a new drama begins.