Costume Design
1949 (designed)
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| Place of origin |
Great Britain’s leading theatre designer from the early 1930s to the mid 1950s, Oliver Messel (1904-1978) won international acclaim for his lavish, painterly and poetic designs informed by period styles. His work spans ballet, drama, film, musical, opera and revue. Messel’s traditional style of theatre design became unfashionable from the mid 1950s onwards, and he increasingly concentrated on painting, interior and textile design, including designing luxury homes in the Caribbean.
Messel’s painterly and poetic interpretation of medieval period costume and architecture complemented Christopher Fry’s verse play, The Lady’s Not For Burning (1949), about a woman wrongly accused of witchcraft in a small English market town around 1400. Fry's first play to be presented at a West End theatre, it won critical acclaim; one critic hailed it as ‘a poetic fantasy of rare splendour and delight.’ (The Times, 10 November 1950).
Claire Bloom played the role of Alizon Eliot. Ivor Brown said she was as ‘pretty as a May morning’ (Observer, 1 May 1949).
Messel’s painterly and poetic interpretation of medieval period costume and architecture complemented Christopher Fry’s verse play, The Lady’s Not For Burning (1949), about a woman wrongly accused of witchcraft in a small English market town around 1400. Fry's first play to be presented at a West End theatre, it won critical acclaim; one critic hailed it as ‘a poetic fantasy of rare splendour and delight.’ (The Times, 10 November 1950).
Claire Bloom played the role of Alizon Eliot. Ivor Brown said she was as ‘pretty as a May morning’ (Observer, 1 May 1949).
Object details
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| Object type | |
| Materials and techniques | Watercolour on paper |
| Brief description | Costume design by Oliver Messel for Alizon in Christopher Fry's play The Lady's Not For Burning, Globe Theatre, 1949. |
| Physical description | Costume design by Oliver Messel for Alizon in Christopher Fry's play The Lady's Not For Burning, 1949. Full length female figure wearing a pale grey-blue dress with a tight bodice and sleeves, a high waist and a long trailing skirt with a wide band of deep maroon decorated with gold at the front hem. The bodice is decorated with a motif of maroon and gold. She wears a silver-grey headdress decorated with maroon and gold. |
| Dimensions |
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| Production type | Design |
| Marks and inscriptions |
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| Credit line | Acquired with the support of the National Lottery Heritage Fund, Art Fund and the Friends of the V&A |
| Object history | The Lady’s not for Burning, a verse play in three acts by Christopher Fry. Oliver Messel designed the first production, presented by H. M. Tennent Productions Ltd at the Globe Theatre, London, on 11 May 1949. It was directed by John Gielgud and Esmé Percy and featured John Gielgud as Thomas Mendip, Pamela Brown as Jennet Jourdemayne, Claire Bloom as Alizon Eliot and Richard Burton as Richard. It was also performed at the Royale Theatre, New York, on 8 November 1950. Lord Snowdon, Oliver Messel's nephew, inherited Messel's theatre designs and other designs and artefacts. The designs were briefly stored in a disused chapel in Kensington Palace before being housed at the V&A from 1981 on indefinite loan. The V&A Theatre Museum purchased the Oliver Messel collection from Lord Snowdon in 2005. Historical significance: Association with Christopher Fry's abortive poetic drama movement. |
| Production | Reason For Production: Commission |
| Summary | Great Britain’s leading theatre designer from the early 1930s to the mid 1950s, Oliver Messel (1904-1978) won international acclaim for his lavish, painterly and poetic designs informed by period styles. His work spans ballet, drama, film, musical, opera and revue. Messel’s traditional style of theatre design became unfashionable from the mid 1950s onwards, and he increasingly concentrated on painting, interior and textile design, including designing luxury homes in the Caribbean. Messel’s painterly and poetic interpretation of medieval period costume and architecture complemented Christopher Fry’s verse play, The Lady’s Not For Burning (1949), about a woman wrongly accused of witchcraft in a small English market town around 1400. Fry's first play to be presented at a West End theatre, it won critical acclaim; one critic hailed it as ‘a poetic fantasy of rare splendour and delight.’ (The Times, 10 November 1950). Claire Bloom played the role of Alizon Eliot. Ivor Brown said she was as ‘pretty as a May morning’ (Observer, 1 May 1949). |
| Bibliographic reference | Pinkham, Roger (ed.) Oliver Messel, London, V&A, 1983
56f, fig.7
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| Other number | ROT 1631 - TM Rotation Number |
| Collection | |
| Accession number | S.3168-2010 |
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| Record created | December 16, 2010 |
| Record URL |
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