PLAY SUMMARY [SPOILER]

Juan Mayorga's 2001 play The Boy in the Last Row is a meta-theatrical drama that explores themes of voyeurism, class disparity, the ethics of storytelling, and the blurred lines between reality and fiction. It critiques modern education, middle-class complacency, and the voyeuristic nature of art and narrative. The play is structured in a series of interconnected scenes rather than traditional acts, alternating between the teacher's home, the classroom, and the imagined domestic life of a student's family. The main characters are:

• Germán: A jaded 55-year-old literature teacher, frustrated with his vocational high school students and obsessed with "proper" storytelling.
• Juana: Germán's wife, also around 55, who runs a struggling contemporary art gallery called "The Minotaur's Labyrinth."
• Claudio: A silent, observant 17-year-old student who sits in the back row, channeling his isolation into increasingly invasive writing.
• Rafa (Rafael Artola): Claudio's 17-year-old classmate, from a middle-class family; affable but unremarkable.
• Rafa's Father: A mid-level businessman in his 50s, basketball enthusiast, ambitious but insecure about his career.
• Ester: Rafa's mother, frustrated with her unfulfilled dreams (she abandoned law school for family); elegant but trapped in domesticity.
• Supporting characters: Rafa's younger sister Marta (mentioned via toys and phone calls), the maid Eliana/Lula, and brief appearances by school staff and Claudio's absent parents.

Opening: 

The play begins in Germán and Juana's modest home. Germán is grading weekend essays from his students, despairing over their banal content (e.g., "I watched TV on Saturday. I was tired on Sunday and did nothing"). He views his vocational school pupils as "barbarians" lacking basic narrative skills, grammar, or imagination. Juana returns from her brother’s funeral, exhausted, and suggests a movie outing, but Germán prioritizes work. She skims the essays, agreeing on their mediocrity.

One essay stands out: Claudio's, earning a rare 7 for its satirical edge. The silent back-row boy describes befriending Rafa under the pretense of math tutoring (in exchange for philosophy help), but his true motive is infiltrating Rafa's middle-class home, a place he's secretly observed from a park bench all summer. He vividly details the "unmistakable smell of the middle-class woman," Ester's blue eyes and wedding ring, and the house's bourgeois comforts. Germán chuckles at the humor, seeing potential in Claudio's anger, but Juana is alarmed, urging him to report it to the school director for its creepy undertones.

Development: 

Germán confronts Claudio after class. The boy, defensive and intense, insists he wrote it solely for Germán's eyes, not to share publicly. Germán, intrigued by Claudio's raw talent, lends him books like Moby-Dick, Don Quixote, and Dostoevsky's works, teaching techniques: show conflicts, avoid clichés, delve into character psychology, and maintain narrative tension through antagonists and uncertainties.

Claudio's submissions escalate. His next exercise (describing adjectives) continues the story: returning to Rafa's house, he observes family photos, a dragon figurine, and Ester's ambiguous allure. Germán critiques it as "repugnant" but encourages refinement, viewing Claudio as a mirror of his own youthful isolation. Meanwhile, Juana faces pressure at her gallery where owners demand she sell "viable" art within a month, dismissing her avant-garde shows as "art for sick people." Germán mocks modern art, preferring realism, highlighting their marital tensions over aesthetics and empathy.

Claudio's narrative parodies middle-class life: Rafa's father obsesses over NBA games and a potential Chinese business deal (prejudiced fantasies of copying products cheaply); Ester sips martinis while planning futile home renovations, haunted by chronic back pain from surgery. Claudio eavesdrops on family dinners revealing resentments - Rafa Sr.'s failed promotions, Ester's aborted law career, and domestic absurdities like mutilated Barbies in Marta's room or Ester's Lexatin pills. He blends observation with invention, questioning realism vs. abstraction, much like Juana's gallery debates.

Juana grows increasingly disturbed, calling the writings "gossip" and "repulsive," pushing Germán to involve authorities or Claudio's absent parents (mother gone, father unreachable). Germán resists, seeing therapeutic value in the boy's rage.

Rising Conflicts: 

Tensions spill into school. Germán publicly dismantles Rafa's essay on the blackboard, erasing it line by line until it's blank ("The Empty Blackboard"), humiliating him amid classmates' laughter. Rafa, furious, wants to punch Germán but, on Claudio's advice, writes a critical article for the school magazine The Torch, titled "The Empty Blackboard," exposing the teacher's authoritarianism. Germán vows not to censor it but rehearses awkward apologies, emphasizing "perspective" in storytelling.

At home, Claudio's story advances: Rafa Sr. pitches quitting his job to partner with the Chinese client, shifting from "teamwork" ideals to solo ambition, frustrating Ester's renovation dreams. He suggests she join the business, but she yearns to finish law school. They debate Claudio's presence - Ester sees him as a distraction, potentially harming Rafa's grades. Rafa aces math (thanks to Claudio's help, including sneaking exam details), leading to a celebratory basketball game invite that Claudio declines, using it to linger alone with Ester. He confesses his mother's abandonment; she shares her regrets, forging an uneasy bond.

Claudio skips classes to write in the library, delivering poems to Ester ("Not even the rain dances so barefoot"). Germán warns against clichés and sentimental manipulation, fearing Claudio's path to "catalog poetry" for sales. The boy retorts that he's following Germán's lessons exactly, introducing conflicts like potential romance or violence (elopement, murder, arson fantasies).

Domestic chaos ensues in Claudio's tale: The maid Eliana steals a coat and quits; a new one, Lula, arrives. Rafa Sr.'s Chinese deal sours as he took the client to a brothel (emulating his boss Mariano), leading to blame and a €260 dinner tab scrutiny. Ester discovers Claudio spied on her from the park, heightening her unease.

Climax: 

Claudio rummages in Ester's room, finding her spine X-ray (Germán scoffs at "cancer clichés"). He stays over, borrowing pajamas from Rafa, who calls him a "true friend." Snooping in the parents' bedroom, Claudio touches Ester's "white skin and small feet," crossing into explicit intrusion. Juana, reading aloud, erupts in horror, predicting tragedy. Germán, echoing her, demands Claudio stop writing as it's no longer "healthy." Claudio reminds him of the encouragement, retorting, "I do what you tell me, teacher." Germán refuses to read more.

The stories converge: Rafa Sr. faces job repercussions; Ester confronts his infidelity. Claudio contemplates endings (suicide, escape), but Germán intervenes, praising his gift while decrying its dangers. Claudio briefly quits but relapses into obsession.

Resolution: 

Germán publicly apologizes to Rafa for the blackboard incident, framing it as a lesson in viewpoint: "Stories need surprise, but endings must feel inevitable." Juana secures a new gallery show (African crafts, which Germán ironically likes), but their marriage strains under mirrored hypocrisies - Germán's "realism" vs. her abstraction, his voyeurism via Claudio.

Claudio abandons school, leaving books at Juana's gallery (implying reinvention or flight). In a final confrontation, he slaps Germán, breaking the mentor-disciple bond. The play ends.