Set Model
1954 (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.
Christopher Fry’s verse play The Dark is Light Enough (1954) is set in the Countess Rosmarin Ostenburg’s country house at the time of the Hungarian rebellion against the Austrians, 1848-1850. The dying Countess with pacifist principles selflessly harbours Gettner, her former son-in-law and deserter from the Hungarian army. The play received mixed reviews following its transference to Broadway, New York in 1955. Critics praised the acting and sets but objected to the play’s obscure meaning.
In Act II, Gettner hides from Hungarian soldiers in the Countess’s stables. Fry subtitled the play ‘a winter story’; the stable doors are ajar, showing a tree covered in snow. Messel enlivens the dark vaults of the stables with an ensemble of tools and implements in the foreground, reminicent of an old master still-life painting.
Christopher Fry’s verse play The Dark is Light Enough (1954) is set in the Countess Rosmarin Ostenburg’s country house at the time of the Hungarian rebellion against the Austrians, 1848-1850. The dying Countess with pacifist principles selflessly harbours Gettner, her former son-in-law and deserter from the Hungarian army. The play received mixed reviews following its transference to Broadway, New York in 1955. Critics praised the acting and sets but objected to the play’s obscure meaning.
In Act II, Gettner hides from Hungarian soldiers in the Countess’s stables. Fry subtitled the play ‘a winter story’; the stable doors are ajar, showing a tree covered in snow. Messel enlivens the dark vaults of the stables with an ensemble of tools and implements in the foreground, reminicent of an old master still-life painting.
Object details
| Category | |
| Object type | |
| Materials and techniques | Wood, cardboard, fabric, and paint. |
| Brief description | Set model by Oliver Messel for the Stables, Act II of Christopher Fry's play The Dark is Light Enough, 1954. |
| Physical description | Set model by Oliver Messel for the Stables, Act II, in a H. M. Tennent production of The Dark is Light Enough, 1954. A wooden box encloses the set, showing a view of stables with vaults and columns. In the foreground, stable tools and implements arranged on a wooden frame on the left, including a rake, brush, pots and rags. A troika on the right. View of columns and vaults in recession. A ladder leans against the wall on the left. At the back of the model, open doors showing a glimpse of a tree in snow. |
| Dimensions |
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| Production type | Model |
| Marks and inscriptions | 'THE DARK IS LIGHT ENOUGH. / The Stable Act II' (Written in ink on a label attached to the side of the wooden box.) |
| Credit line | Acquired with the support of the National Lottery Heritage Fund, Art Fund and the Friends of the V&A |
| Object history | The Dark is Light Enough is a verse play in three acts by Christopher Fry. Oliver Messel’s production was first produced by H. M. Tennent Productions Ltd. on 30 April 1954 at the Aldwych Theatre, London. It was directed by Peter Brook with music by Leslie Bridgewater and featured Edith Evans as the Countess and James Donald as Gettner. The play ran for seven months in London and then went to New York where it opened in 1955 with Katharine Cornell as the Countess and Tyrone Power as Gettner. 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. Christopher Fry’s verse play The Dark is Light Enough (1954) is set in the Countess Rosmarin Ostenburg’s country house at the time of the Hungarian rebellion against the Austrians, 1848-1850. The dying Countess with pacifist principles selflessly harbours Gettner, her former son-in-law and deserter from the Hungarian army. The play received mixed reviews following its transference to Broadway, New York in 1955. Critics praised the acting and sets but objected to the play’s obscure meaning. In Act II, Gettner hides from Hungarian soldiers in the Countess’s stables. Fry subtitled the play ‘a winter story’; the stable doors are ajar, showing a tree covered in snow. Messel enlivens the dark vaults of the stables with an ensemble of tools and implements in the foreground, reminicent of an old master still-life painting. |
| Associated object | S.77-2006 (Design) |
| Bibliographic reference | Pinkham, Roger (ed.) Oliver Messel, London, V&A, 1983
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| Other number | ROT 8872 - TM Rotation Number |
| Collection | |
| Accession number | S.201-2006 |
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| Record created | July 21, 2006 |
| Record URL |
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