Set Model
1953 (designed)
| Artist/Maker | |
| 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 designed sets for The Little Hut (1950), a light comedy by André Roussin adapted by Nancy Mitford (1904-1973), about a husband, wife and her lover wrecked on a desert island. Directed by Peter Brook (1925-), the play enjoyed a long run of over three years at the Lyric Theatre, Shaftesbury Avenue, London, but failed to impress critics and the audience on Broadway, New York, where the production was pulled after only 29 performances.
Messel created a desert island with lush, overgrown fruit and vegetation painted in strong colours and a makeshift hut set against a luminous blue sky. The play ended with William Chappell descending the palm tree dressed as a monkey.
Messel designed sets for The Little Hut (1950), a light comedy by André Roussin adapted by Nancy Mitford (1904-1973), about a husband, wife and her lover wrecked on a desert island. Directed by Peter Brook (1925-), the play enjoyed a long run of over three years at the Lyric Theatre, Shaftesbury Avenue, London, but failed to impress critics and the audience on Broadway, New York, where the production was pulled after only 29 performances.
Messel created a desert island with lush, overgrown fruit and vegetation painted in strong colours and a makeshift hut set against a luminous blue sky. The play ended with William Chappell descending the palm tree dressed as a monkey.
Object details
| Categories | |
| Object type | |
| Materials and techniques | Wood, card and paper |
| Brief description | Set model by Oliver Messel for André Roussin's comedy The Little Hut, Lyric Theatre, 23 August 1950. |
| Physical description | Set model by The Little Hut, Lyric Theatre, 23 August 1950. The model is enclosed in a wooden box with hessian surround, and strips of velvet on the inside. The set is made of card. It shows a wooden hut overgrown vegetation and a tall wooden cross with cloth hanging from it. Some of the vegetation is painted on acetate and brightly coloured in red and yellow in addition to green. |
| Dimensions |
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| Production type | Model |
| Credit line | Acquired with the support of the National Lottery Heritage Fund, Art Fund and the Friends of the V&A |
| Object history | The Little Hut, a play adapted by Nancy Mitford from the light comedy by André Roussin. Oliver Messel’s production was first produced by H. M. Tennent Productions Ltd. at the Lyric Theatre, Shaftesbury Avenue, London on 23 August 1950. It was directed by Peter Brook and featured Joan Tetzel as Susan and David Tomlinson as Henry. It was also performed at the Coronet Theatre, New York on 7 October 1953. Roger Pinkham has said of this production “The set of The Little Hut, exotically fruited, and ideally over-run with vegetation, made an ideal and highly praised setting for the slender story of husband, wife and lover wrecked on a desert island." (Pinkham, ed., 1983). 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. |
| 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 designed sets for The Little Hut (1950), a light comedy by André Roussin adapted by Nancy Mitford (1904-1973), about a husband, wife and her lover wrecked on a desert island. Directed by Peter Brook (1925-), the play enjoyed a long run of over three years at the Lyric Theatre, Shaftesbury Avenue, London, but failed to impress critics and the audience on Broadway, New York, where the production was pulled after only 29 performances. Messel created a desert island with lush, overgrown fruit and vegetation painted in strong colours and a makeshift hut set against a luminous blue sky. The play ended with William Chappell descending the palm tree dressed as a monkey. |
| Associated object | S.146-2006 (Design) |
| Bibliographic reference | Pinkham, Roger (ed.) Oliver Messel, London, V&A, 1983
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| Other number | ROT 8832.1 - TM Rotation Number |
| Collection | |
| Accession number | S.200-2006 |
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| Record created | July 21, 2006 |
| Record URL |
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