A photograph of a little girl dancing around a sleeping Queen Titania on a grassy lawn in Twickenham taken during the Queen’s coronation year has sparked an open air production in Totnes.

Former teacher Helen Raphael Sands was the four-year-old in the picture, performing in Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream to celebrate the coronation of Queen Elizabeth II in 1953.

Helen recently stumbled across the grainy black and white image and decided, in the Queen’s Platinum Jubilee year, to recreate a short version of the play featuring five pupils from the Grove School.

The play will be performed in front of their classmates at Leechwell Gardens today (Thursday May 12).

Helen, project manager of Warmheart Community Projects, said: “A photograph taken in June 1953 sparked a memory.

“I was the little fairy in the picture performing in York House Gardens for the Babette Palmer School of Dance.

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Helen Raphael Sands pictured left as a fairy dancer in the 1953 production of A Midsmummer’s Night Dream (.)

“This jubilee year I am directing five children from the Grove School in their free time to perform a short version of the play using drama, dance and original synthesizer music composed by pupil Billy Batts-Dangerfield.

“The parent team are hugely supportive.

“We will perform the play for the classmates in Leechwell Gardens, by kind permission of the Leechwell Garden Association.”

The play is a Warmheart Community Project production and is supported by a £300 grant from South Hams Council’s Locality Grant fund.