Costume design for Jean Fox in Henry VIII thumbnail 1
Not currently on display at the V&A

Costume design for Jean Fox in Henry VIII

Costume Design
1949 (made)
Artist/Maker
Place of origin

This design by Tanya Moiseiwitsch was for a costume worn by Jean Fox as a Lady in Waiting in Shakespeare's Henry VIII directed by Tyrone Guthrie that opened at the Shakespeare Memorial Theatre on 15th July 1949. The production starred Anthony Quayle as Henry as Diana Wynyard as Queen Katharine, and included Paul Hansard as Sir Thomas Lovell.

Tanya Moiseiwitsch (1914-2003) was a prolific and innovative designer who produced both set and costumes for this production, staged on her interpretation of an Elizabethan stage. The critic Muriel St Clare Byrne wrote of it: 'When the audience entered the theatre, instead of seeing a curtain, they had before their eyes a lighted permanent set which remained unchanged and unhidden until the end. An excellent compromise between a platform and a picture-frame stage, it suggests a basic design which might well provide a happy and practicable solution to the problem of securing the effect of the Elizabethan stage within our modern theatres. Miss Tanya Moiseiwitsch is to be congratulated on the pleasing and dignified appearance as well as on the admirably functional qualities of this set, with its varied levels, its ample forestage, fifteen feet deep, and its well thought- out modifications and rearrangements of the gallery and the inner- stage.'

Jean Fox worked with the Royal Shakespeare Company at Stratford for two seasons in 1948 and 1949 playing roles including Peasblossom in A MidsummerNight's Dream, an Apparition in Macbeth, and a Maid in The Taming of the Shrew.



Object details

Categories
Object type
TitleCostume design for Jean Fox in Henry VIII (generic title)
Brief description
Costume design by Tanya Moiseiwitsch for Jean Fox as a Lady in Waiting to Queen Katherine in Henry VIII by William Shakespeare, Shakespeare Memorial Theatre, Stratford upon Avon, 15th July 1949
Credit line
Given by the British Council
Summary
This design by Tanya Moiseiwitsch was for a costume worn by Jean Fox as a Lady in Waiting in Shakespeare's Henry VIII directed by Tyrone Guthrie that opened at the Shakespeare Memorial Theatre on 15th July 1949. The production starred Anthony Quayle as Henry as Diana Wynyard as Queen Katharine, and included Paul Hansard as Sir Thomas Lovell.

Tanya Moiseiwitsch (1914-2003) was a prolific and innovative designer who produced both set and costumes for this production, staged on her interpretation of an Elizabethan stage. The critic Muriel St Clare Byrne wrote of it: 'When the audience entered the theatre, instead of seeing a curtain, they had before their eyes a lighted permanent set which remained unchanged and unhidden until the end. An excellent compromise between a platform and a picture-frame stage, it suggests a basic design which might well provide a happy and practicable solution to the problem of securing the effect of the Elizabethan stage within our modern theatres. Miss Tanya Moiseiwitsch is to be congratulated on the pleasing and dignified appearance as well as on the admirably functional qualities of this set, with its varied levels, its ample forestage, fifteen feet deep, and its well thought- out modifications and rearrangements of the gallery and the inner- stage.'

Jean Fox worked with the Royal Shakespeare Company at Stratford for two seasons in 1948 and 1949 playing roles including Peasblossom in A MidsummerNight's Dream, an Apparition in Macbeth, and a Maid in The Taming of the Shrew.

Associated objects
Collection
Accession number
S.2335-1986

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Record createdMay 12, 2011
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