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27.
Titania sees Bottom
As noted before,
the schoolgirl fairies have improbably short skirts for the
late 1940s. By contrast, the teacher SL, in drab but demure
ankle-length skirt, seems more like a stereotype of the
period.
Perhaps this
suggests how memory and desire are confused (by audience and
director). Notice how the 'schoolchildren' are regimented
(lined up behind their school desks), and excluded from the
circle, only to be allowed in under strict teacher
supervision.
The stage picture's
doubleness is also suggested by the contrast between some
girls being lined up behind their desks (as the adults would
like them to be?) while others contemplate 'adult love' in
more varied positions as they wait to play their
'girl-guide' roles to the hilt in 'cute' but
physically inventive ways. (See second still)
Much the same
language of physical inventiveness is used in the balletic
choreography of the Mask version (Mask 22.
Fairy bow & cartwheel; Mask 23.
Fairy bow & splits), though the changed context makes it
appear less cute and more consciously 'artistic'.
The Bar version
(Bar 31.
Prudish Bottom) seems to suggest male physical anxiety in
the overpowering presence of 'a creature of the
night'.
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