Recurring Images - Stop Motion: Passion, Process and Performance - page 47

Birds l ying around will conveniently
set a location, and give you licence
for some equally atmospheric sound
ef ects. Birds are hugely signii cant
to me; they appear as bird masks or
some more developed transformation.
In Next , Shakespeare wears bird masks
in the Romeo and Juliet scene, and
an eagle mask in the i nal scene from
Cymbeline . In Screen Play , the two
birds are forever commenting on and
paralleling the central relationship,
hinting at the transformation to come.
In Rigoletto , bird masks at the orgy
quickly set out the hierarchy of the
society in a visual shorthand. The
Duke looks magnii cent in a bird of
prey mask, while the foolish Rigoletto
is a cock and the cuckolded Ceprano
is seen as a turkey. The women wear
more exotic masks of swans. In this
scheme of things, the assassins
appropriately wear skulls. Two crows,
beautifully made by my mother, peck
at the hanging corpses - lovely!

Romeo and Juliet in bird masks.

In Achilles , the birds became bulls, as the image of men jumping through a bull's horns is a
recurring one in Greek and Mycenaean art, especially at Knossos, and signii es a transition to
full male adulthood. The Minotaur has enthralled me since I i rst read the Greeks, and although
not exactly related to this myth, it is a masculine and virile image. I had referred to Achilles and
Patroclus training together, killing a bull. There is symmetry in Achilles killing another 'bull' at
the end, Hector in his bull helmet.

I always look forward to seeing how the serpent and the animals will be represented in The
Magic Flute , and a rather space-age production recently saw the serpent as a spectacularly
built muscleman in the smallest of jockstraps but with a splendid bull's head. The three ladies
danced round, killing him with absurd glittery ray guns. The bull collapsed ungainly to the l oor,
and the scene carried on. Even when the scene changed he seemed happy on the l oor, fast
asleep. I have seen an audience asleep before, but never a performer.

The Gilbert and Sullivan i lm did escape my obsession with characters playing animals
and birds, although at one point Gilbert came close to acting out Tit Willow as a bird-themed
shadow puppet scene. Again, with Gilbert trying to show respect for Sullivan,
puppets would have been used to say something the protagonists could not. It
would have also been a moment of dif erent visual storytelling and I'm always up
for that.

Hamilton Mattress is populated with characters as birds, although here they are fully
l edged birds, not some strange, role-playing hybrid commenting on the story.