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50.
Closing Dance
The lines after line 392, as well
as Titania's and Puck's epilogue, are all cut. The fairies
dance wildly on the tables like topless dancers, and after
Oberon's speech, are joined by the lovers and mechanicals.
At the last words of Oberon "So shall all the couples three
Ever true in loving be", one couple of the young lovers who
have been drinking hard at their table like others, stand up
and have an affectionate kiss. The scene comes closer to a
binge or a wild party under lurid red lights; here the
fairies' world and the "green world" merge in the sexual
fantasy of a contemporary Japanese (Deguchi). (cf.
Bar 1.
Opening Frame).
Note that Puck/Barman stays on the
bar, watching the others enjoying themselves. Is he still a
kind of stage manager of the play?
This wild action suddenly cuts out
to be followed by a brief scene between Puck/barman and
young fairy/novice hostess which parallels an earlier
framing scene (Bar 12. Putting on
stockings, Bar 13. Fairy's
dance-step and Bar 14. Puck's
introduction). In the
darkness and quiet, a spotlight picks out the young barman,
slumped at the table stage right, and he is handed his
script of MND by the young hostess.
If School
49. Puck's epilogue
inscribes that production as the dream of a desperate
director, the Bar version seems now inscribed as the dream
of a young actor (and part-time barman) who is hoping to
play Puck. If so, the play we have been watching is the
dream he had when he was knocked unconscious in the opening.
As in the School version, there is a brief recapitulation of
the Opening Frame action (above).
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