1) Irma and Carmen's Scene Fabel

This is the story of the scene, told using the unit titles, and more or less arranged into dialectical units,
each of which could be given a title, thus providing an even shorter summary of the scene's action.

• Breaking the serious atmosphere of work and discarding concern for their survival in the face of civil war, Irma orders Carmen to help her transform herself in anticipation of the arrival of the Chief of Police, to which Carmen responds with alacritous glee.

• A casual inquiry by Irma, however, catches Carmen off-guard, though she is reassured that, for the moment, she is free from Irma's scrutiny. Carmen allows herself to entertain the possibility of defecting to the other side, but quickly catches herself. Unfortunately, though, Irma's suspicion is alerted,  forcing Carmen to resign herself to the fact that, in her present  position, she is trapped with Irma, and so must swear loyalty publicly, even if, privately, she still longs for escape.

• Despite the chaos outside and the decidedly shifty behaviour of Carmen, Irma's jewels, and the thought of the security they offer, disarm her. As Irma decorates herself with her jewels, Carmen inadvertently confirms to Irma that her loyalties are ambiguous. Consequently, Irma decides to put Carmen in her place.

• Sensing she is in real trouble, Carmen, mustering her best theatrical skills, performs the loyal servant of the Balcony number in an entertaining, if somewhat unconvincing, manner. Fortunately for Carmen, the sounding of a bell dispels the air of confrontation and gives Irma hope that the Chief has arrived safely, but it is only a customer leaving, whom Irma berates before turning her attention to more serious matters. Irma pragmatically assesses the situation outside.

• Apparently satisfied that there is no immediate danger, Irma invites Carmen to flatter her but realises Carmen isn't playing along. She makes an attention-seeking demand for sympathy but Carmen maliciously undercuts it. Finally though, Carmen's allegiance forces her to oblige Irma in her little game.

• Bitter at the time it took Carmen to submit to her whims, Irma demeans her, implying that, unlike Irma, perhaps Carmen will be safe if the revolution is successful--all the time stalking her, threateningly. While Carmen maintains a nervous silence, Irma goes in for the kill, but Carmen's affectionate submission confirms, to Irma's delight, that their fate will be a shared one.

• Irma starts another game, with which Carmen is obliged to play along enthusiastically. Though carried away by the intensity of her own performance, Irma catches herself for a moment, remembering Carmen's recent signs of disloyalty. Irma decides to use this game to purge Carmen of her thoughts of betrayal.

• Taking her cue from Carmen's suggestion of a new theme with which to embellish their performance, Irma flippantly challenges Carmen and receives an outraged response (as expected).  Irma deflates Carmen's apparent anger by selling the idea of the aestheticisation of her experience. Irma wonders how Carmen could desire anything else, but Carmen's expression of devotion convinces Irma that she will stay with her, come what may, so, somewhat hysterical with joy, Irma playfully imagines an even more absurd picture of their fate together.

• Laughing, Carmen tries to end their game, but this only makes Irma worse. Finally, Carmen's concern calms Irma down, and Irma assures her that they are safe, but the tardiness of the Chief is beginning to give her doubts.

2. Irma and Carmen's Scene Breakdown

This is the detailed breakdown of the scene into dialectical units of action.
The format of these units is indicated below.
The titles have been used above to produce the fabel of the scene.
 

FORMAT OF THE SCENE-BREAKDOWN UNITS:

Scene Unit Title, summing up the entire unit's action.

Scene unit "state of being." Only used occasionally. Physical locations incorporating, where relevant, attitudes to one another. Initial situation that the unit's action will transform.

• Scene Unit Action (verb[s] in the present tense)
• Way in which the action was received (past tense - gerund?), which prompts the Scene Unit Reaction (verb[s] in the present tense)
• >>> Way in which the action and / or reaction were received, prompting the Scene Unit Transformation, which sublates the action and reaction.

The Breakdown
 

1. Breaking the serious atmosphere of work and discarding concern for their survival in the face of civil war, Irma orders Carmen to help her transform herself in anticipation of the arrival of the Chief of Police, to which Carmen responds with alacritous glee.

Almost certainly just having sent Arthur to his death, Irma attempts to divert her attention from the worrying progress of the revolution by preparing for what she hopes will be the immanent arrival of the Chief of Police. She moves from the door upstage to the mirror downstage. Carmen is doing Irma's accounts for the day at a table on the lower level.

• Triumphantly, Irma orders Carmen to help her prepare for the arrival of the Chief of Police.
• Excited, Carmen leaps up from the accounts, asking Irma playfully what she will wear.
• >>> Irma decides to wear a negligée, savouring her own immanent sexiness in a romantic flight of fancy.

Carmen opens the wardrobe and searches for a negligée, while Irma begins to undress.

• Irma asks Carmen about Chantel with feigned disinterest.
• Stopped in her tracks, Carmen feigns ignorance, thinking that Irma is asking whether Carmen intends to betray her and not wanting to reveal her dissatisfaction with her present situation.
• >>> Inattentively, Irma clarifies that she wants information about Chantel, inadvertently telling Carmen that she is not yet aware of the latter's questionable loyalties.

• With relief, Carmen side-steps the question by reporting, matter-of-factly, that since the prostitutes are less willing to inform on one another under the changed social circumstances, she hasn't learnt much from them.
• Disturbed by the reference to what's going on outside, Carmen holds up two negligées before her, as an image of the division between the progressive and reactionary forces battling nearby, contemplating her relation to them.
• >>> Distracted from Irma's dressing for too long, Carmen recovers by forcefully denying that she has any knowledge of Chantel, whilst offering Irma a negligée abruptly.

• With an air of ironic amusement at Carmen's overstatement, Irma gently questions Carmen's loyalty, ignoring the offer of the negligée.
• Trapped by Irma's indifference to the negligée and a little surprised, Carmen emphatically swears loyalty to the brothel.
• >>> Unconvinced and disappointed, Irma refuses the negligée, dismissing Carmen from her sight.

• As she approaches the wardrobe to fetch another negligée, Carmen reflects on her constrained situation.
• Concerned by another lapse of attention towards Irma, Carmen forces herself to concentrate on the task in hand, by asking Irma which jewels she wants to wear as she selects another negligée.
• >>> Disarmed, Irma welcomes the sight of her jewellery-box with immense relief, as evidence of security in these uncertain times.

• Embarrassed by the honest revelation of her vulnerability for material objects, Irma demands, as she selects a necklace, that Carmen names the disloyal prostitutes.
• Thrown onto the defensive, Carmen insists that she does what she's told.
• >>> Annoyed, Irma snatches the negligée from Carmen's hand, pointing to Carmen's defensiveness, bitterly,

• Frustrated that her attempts to distract Irma from the question of her loyalty have failed, Carmen snaps the jewellery-box shut.
• Outraged at this sign of insubordination, Irma snatches the jewellery-box from Carmen, demanding a handkerchief from the wardrobe as a reminder that, for the moment at least, Irma remains in charge.
• >>> A little hurt, Carmen denies she is being defensive, returning to the wardrobe with Irma's discarded clothes to fulfil her command.

• Covetously clutching her jewels, Irma locks them away in her desk drawer, out of Carmen's reach.
• Worried, Carmen carefully, though over-acting a little, affirms her loyalty to Irma by portraying herself as indifferent and without connection to the revolution, while she fetches a handkerchief from the wardrobe, slowly.
• >>> Distracted by the effort Carmen puts into the performance, Irma settles herself on her desk and watches Carmen, increasingly amused.

A bell rings on Irma's surveillance device. Irma lowers the machine from the ceiling to see what's going on.

• Shaking herself back to reality, with a faint attempt to sound hopeful for Irma's sake, yet unable to mask fully her contempt for him, Carmen inquires if the Chief of Police has arrived.
• Disappointed that he has not, Irma ridicules a customer who is leaving, while Carmen returns the unaccepted handkerchief to the wardrobe.
• >>> Irma dismisses the customer as unimportant given the Chief's non-appearance and the grave circumstances outside.

A burst of machine-gun fire resounds across the room. They both look out towards the audience. Irma anxiously, Carmen hopefully.

• Catching herself, Carmen notices that Irma is worried.
• Adopting a sympathetic attitude, Carmen unconvincingly tries to reassure Irma that the army have the upper hand and consequently that she is safe; though, from the security in her tone, it is clear that she does not consider herself to be in the same threatened position.
• >>> Firmly, Irma insists that the rebels are winning, implicitly assuming they share the same dangerous situation, close to the Archbishop's Palace.

• Irma boasts of her importance in the social hierarchy and the dangerous position this puts her in.
• Unimpressed and disinterested, Carmen ignores her by returning to the accounts.
• >>> Nonplussed, Irma regards Carmen's indifference coldly.

• Irma pretends to despair in order to elicit Carmen's sympathy.
• Unmoved, Carmen deliberately riles Irma with an offer of the ineffective protection of Arthur.
• >>> Her performance deflated, Irma implicitly accuses Carmen of treachery by dismissing her offer bitterly.

• A little irritated, Carmen stops work and tries to calm Irma down by looking at the situation rationally.
• Encouraged by Carmen's interest, Irma intensifies her appeal for Carmen's attention by disparaging the enemy and heightening her performed self-pity.
• >>> Having relented, Carmen tries to cheer up Irma.

• Irma turns on Carmen, snapping at the stupidity of her suggestion and reaffirming the danger of Irma's situation, gravely.
• Self-assured, Irma threatens Carmen--who has resumed her work on the accounts, humbly--by walking slowly and in silence towards her.
• >>> Her sense of control over their interaction consolidated, Irma berates Carmen with a sarcastic account of Carmen's fortunate fate at the hands of the revolutionaries, while circling her, predatorily.

• Drawing up close behind her, Irma threatens Carmen by stroking her hair in an affectionate way that becomes a tight grip.
• Intimidated, Carmen gently submits to the aesthetics of Irma's imagined fate for her.
• >>> Delighted, Irma releases Carmen, congratulating her on her loyalty to the spirit of the establishment (in both senses of the word).

• Inspired by the thought of their real fate at the hands of the revolutionaries, Irma begins to imagine an aestheticised account of their murder, wandering slowly up onto the stage.
• Relieved that Irma's attention has passed from her, Carmen dutifully adopts the role of a terrified audience with great enthusiasm.
• >>> Encouraged and pleased by Carmen's eagerness, Irma connects to Carmen, implicitly confirming her power to force Carmen to play along.

• Irma vaunts around the room, working herself up to a grand, apocalyptic performance.
• Carried away by her performance, Irma savours the pleasure of the aestheticisation of their destruction.
• >>> Alerted to Carmen's presence, Irma, becoming slightly more serious for a moment, implicitly warns Carmen not to leave either this game or the brothel by imagining any other fate for herself.

• Irma accuses Carmen flippantly of not wanting to be a part of the realisation of her vision.
• Flustered, Carmen interrupts Irma, attempting to object to the implication that she is unwilling to play along or that she intends betrayal.
• >>> Annoyed, Irma turns on Carmen, asserting her privilege over the direction of this game by restating her accusation forcefully.

• Carmen indicates her intention to remain by providing a cue with which Irma can develop the game further.
• Pleased, Irma takes Carmen up on her offer by challenging her.
• >>> Pretending to be outraged, Carmen leaps to her feet.

• Irma comforts Carmen by offering her an aestheticised image of her daughter's grave.
• Surprisingly convinced, Carmen discards the reality of her daughter.
• >>> Pleased with Carmen's acceptance, Irma triumphantly pitches Saint Theresa's role for Carmen to assume in the brothel.

• Dumbfounded at Carmen's desire for anything other than the aestheticised experience, Irma questions Carmen's bravery, bemusedly.
• Amused, Carmen tries to seduce Irma by proclaiming her devotion sexily.
• >>> Over-joyed, Irma invites Carmen to share an even more rarefied imaginary world, in direct contradiction to the events transpiring outside.

• With immense fondness, Carmen laughs at the ridiculousness of Irma's fantasy.
• A little sobered, Carmen challenges Irma to end their game by gently reminding her of the civil war raging outside.
• >>> Disappointed and reproachful towards Carmen, Irma refuses to stop playing by launching into a detailed inventory of the strength of the forces of the establishment.

• Irma disconnects from Carmen, dropping the pretence of their game, to reassure, as much herself as Carmen, that there is no need for them to be afraid.
• Clearly unconvinced, Carmen looks out of the window, anxiously.
• >>> Shaken, Irma allows herself to doubt whether the Chief will make it.