The Mask
A mask always represents a hidden face or personality. In "The Public" is a very important symbol representing also the need to hide the immoral, the hard to swallow, and the reality of homosexuality in a repressive society. It stands for the falsehood of the outdoor theater. In the play, theater and life merge. Man 1 bases the authenticity of his love for the Director in the absence of a mask, that is, in the lack of hypocrisy in their relationship. The mask is the social conventions to which one must surrender at times, as the Director says, a character less determined than Man 1 to express his feeling of love.
Theater under the sand
Represents the one that reveals an authentic drama, in which the intimacy of the author prevails, and the theatrical representation, to taste of a sector of the audience that prefers not to face the truth of the scenario. Some critics have said that represents the sterile love, the lost seed of love between men.
Outdoor theater
In act I, Men 1 and 2 try to convince the Director of the importance of removing the railings to the bridge and show the truth of the graves, which he resists still defending the conventionality of outdoor theater.
The Ladies and The Students
The ladies are the maximum representative of the public of the theater in the open air, they react violently, symbolizing the prejudices of conventional society. However, the students are the support on what's happening on the scene.
The White Horses
They are the virile force in a heterosexual relationship and the Negro, the true love, whether heterosexual or homosexual. The White Horses try to seduce Julieta with an inauthentic relationship, but this one despises them and leaves with the Black Horse. The Horses as a whole are a symbol for the intromission of the theater under the sand in the open-air theater, so they are rejected at first by the Director.
Man 2, Man 3, Elena, the Emperor, Juliet, and the Horses
It's important to recall that the Man 2, Man 3, Elena, the Emperor, Juliet, and the Horses will be the different manifestations of the different facets of the feeling of love.
