Performance with fifteen women

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I love vintage photos of performances, whether bygone interpretations of shows with which I’m familiar, or pictures that make me wonder what on earth was going on. This image definitely falls into the latter category. Of course, this could be a scene I know, such as Titania waking up from her dream in “A Midsummer Night’s Dream”. But more likely, it’s some sort of musical pageant that might seem as odd to us today in performance as it does in this out-of-context picture. As someone with a lifelong interest in live performance, it fascinates me to see how styles and standards have changed over the years, not just the wacky costumes, but things like the candles with what appear to be actual flames in front of each of the kneeling women. Whatever this performance was, I hope it was well received. By the way, this is a real photo postcard, whose manufacturer’s markings (open-script Cyko) date it rather vaguely to 1904-1920s, which seems about right.