Writings, 1955

The Girls’ Room

Draft for prose piece in a theatre setting.

Coca-cola is fine, of course, but I’d rather have had a cup of hot coffee.”

About the text

Excerpt from the introduction:

The Girls’ Room is a makeup studio in a large theatre. Every day, it is occupied by five girls from the ballet. All five came to the academy around the age of seven, and are now all around twenty years old, and are held to be very talented and beautiful.

The bells ring nine o’clock in the church across the street; the studio is empty so early in the morning. It’s large and spacious, but the ceilings are low, with the sole luxury of a large window by the floor, arching upwards a full one and a half meters. The window is draughty, and so a thick, dusty blanket sits about its base. Four of the make-up tables stand together in the middle of the floor, with the fifth standing against one of the long walls, sharing space with three large, modern washbasins, which in their own way clash with the otherwise old-fashioned furnishings.