Sophie Campbell, costume designer for ETG’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream, on putting together the costumes for this timeless classic.
A luscious green glade inhabited by fairies, a group of Athenian lovers, lost yet frolicking and the mischievous Puck. That’s probably the score of images that are conjured up when you think of ‘A Midsummer Night’s Dream’. But there’s no green glade in sight in this year’s ETG production, rather a more barren forest; depleted, though not totally without magic.
The fairies that inhabit the forest have been affected too… Or is it that the forest has lost a bit of magic through their doing? Just like the glade has seen better days, so too do the fairies remain a little haphazard despite trying to scrub up well.
Queen Oberon sports a white dress, but it’s seemingly stained with the silhouette of mountains. (It was lovingly dyed in the back entrance of the ADC!) I wanted to explore this link between nature and the fairies, and how exploiting one’s control over nature could only end up in ‘nature’s revenge’. Titania’s white suit is patterned with organza swirls reminiscent (hopefully!) of the bark of a peeling silver birch tree. Puck’s is a mini-version of Titania’s yet tinged with the purple of Oberon’s dress hopefully showing how Puck is a child torn between two warring adults. There’s something crumpled, fallen about these fairy regents, and it’s not just the effects of two weeks of tour in Europe! Bird-like barrenness is a recurring theme in director Pauline’s vision of the play, and Titania’s feather collar hints at this.
Doing costume design is also one of the easiest ways to place the play temporally, so I aimed to blend modern and typically ‘Shakespearian’ references into the Fairies attire, so Oberon and her servant Puck wear organza ruffs. It’s the sense that in this jumbled world, clothes and references from the clothes-shelves of Time have fallen and landed upon the fairies. I loved the opportunity of having the creative licence to play around with such a canonical Shakespeare play, spinning the yarn as such in my own way.
On the other hand, the Athenians needed to be easily distinguishable from the Fairies and temporally too. I decided on the 1920s, 100 years from now, and juxtaposed the chaotic horizontal swirls that distinguish the fairies with a proliferation of vertical stripes. King Theseus is clothed in a pinstripe blazer, and Demetrius, ever keen to win his favour, sports one too. Opposed to the pale palette of the fairies, the Athenians are all awash with warm-toned colours.
Yet the two worlds meld together, and hints of the warm tones seem to be contagious onto Titania’s orange socks and orange paisley shirt.
It’s been a joy being a part of this production although I’m sure Puck would’ve commented ‘what fools these mortals be’ seeing me trying to sew the whole thing in a week!
A Midsummer Night's Dream
by William Shakespeare
Tuesday 21st - Saturday 25th January, 7.45PM
ADC Theatre
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