The Bald Soprano Summary

The Bald Soprano takes place over the course of one evening in “a middle-class English interior” in the Smiths’ home in the suburbs of London. The play opens as Mr. and Mrs. Smith discuss the dinner they have just eaten and a friend of theirs who has died. Suddenly, Mary, their maid, announces that their friends the Martins are waiting outside and are expecting to be served dinner.

While the Smiths leave to change clothes, Mr. and Mrs. Martin enter. They each have forgotten who the other person is, but they feel they recognize each other, gradually deducing that all the facts of their lives are the same and that they must be husband and wife. They fall asleep, and Mary informs the audience that their final deduction was wrong; they cannot be who they think they are.

When the Smiths rejoin them, the doorbell rings several times, but there is no one there each time they go to open the door. This causes a debate over whether a ringing doorbell means that someone is there or the opposite. Finally, it rings, and the Fire Chief is there. When he comes inside, he laments the lack of fires recently, saying that this is bad for his business. Then, at the crowd’s encouragement, he tells a series of nonsensical animal fables. Mary returns and recognizes the Fire Chief as her old lover, scandalizing the Smiths and Martins by canoodling with him. The Smiths drag her off stage as she recites a poem about the entire world catching fire.

The Fire Chief announces that he must depart to get to a fire that is scheduled to take place across town, but on his way out, he asks about “the bald soprano,” suddenly making the others uncomfortable. Mrs. Smith responds that the bald soprano always wears her hair in the same fashion, a comment that apparently satisfies the Fire Chief, who leaves. From this point on, the Smiths and Martins begin frantically reciting absurd non-sequiturs and nonsensical proverbs, soon devolving into mere strings of sounds. Finally, after the lights go out, they furiously chant in unison, “It’s not that way, it’s over here.” They stop abruptly and the lights come back on, and the play begins again in the exact same way, except this time the Martins are playing the Smiths’ role.