School Version

48. Group Circle Dance

The Felliniesque carnival music returns, this time decelerating from fast and joyous to sad and pensive. The imagined community seems to be redeemed in this moment of festive comedy. Hand-in-hand, the whole cast dance counterclockwise under the sign of Moon and School.

The play has now come full circle as one of Deguchi's opening images returns. Puck leads Oberon (schoolteacher/director-with-wings) to the centre of the circle and tenderly, as the music dies, removes his wings-and-satchel. His god-like powers are gone, like Prospero's. Only the mortal director remains, contemplating the after-image of what has been.

See also: Bar 50. Closing Dance

A Midsummer Night's Dream