Not currently on display at the V&A

Set Model

1945 (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’s first post-war production was Sheridan’s comedy of manners, The Rivals (1775). Performed at the Criterion Theatre in 1945, and directed by William Armstrong and Edith Evans, he designed costumes and sets in pastiche of eighteenth century period style. The artificiality and lightness of his designs were well suited to the improbable plot and satiric spirit of the play.

A set model for Bob Acres’ dressing room. Although reviewers responded unfavourably to the production as a whole, Messel’s recreation of period style won praise ‘Mr. Oliver Messel has a proper sense of the old comedy … His decorative artificiality has, in short, style, conviction. It is precisely this quality which the revival as a whole lacks.’ (The Times, 26 September 1945)


Object details

Category
Object type
Materials and techniques
Wood, cardboard, fabric, and paint.
Brief description
Set model by Oliver Messel for Bob Acres' dressing room in Richard Brinsley Sheridan's play The Rivals, Criterion Theatre 1945.
Physical description
Set model by Oliver Messel for Bob Acres' dressing room. The set model consists of a wooden box carved and painted in baroque style, with velvet strips on the inside of the box. A gold fringe and yellow curtain at the top of the front of the set. Two cut cloths. A view of an eighteenth century interior, showing from left to right a painted screen; table with gilt mirror and cloth; a window with a burgundy curtain, gilt mirror; column and arch behind which is a bed, with its red tester drawn.
Dimensions
  • Height: 38cm
  • Width: 44.2cm
  • Depth: 19cm
Production typeModel
Marks and inscriptions
'Bob Acres dressing room' (Written in ink on label attached to the back of the 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 Rivals, a comedy in five acts by Richard Brinsley Sheridan (1775). Oliver Messel’s production first produced by H. M. Tennent Productions Ltd. And C.E.M.A. at the Criterion Theatre, London on 24 September, 1945. It was directed by William Armstrong and Edith Evans with assistance from Tyrone Guthrie. It featured Edith Evans as Mrs. Malaprop and Anthony Quayle as Captain Absolute.
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’s first post-war production was Sheridan’s comedy of manners, The Rivals (1775). Performed at the Criterion Theatre in 1945, and directed by William Armstrong and Edith Evans, he designed costumes and sets in pastiche of eighteenth century period style. The artificiality and lightness of his designs were well suited to the improbable plot and satiric spirit of the play.

A set model for Bob Acres’ dressing room. Although reviewers responded unfavourably to the production as a whole, Messel’s recreation of period style won praise ‘Mr. Oliver Messel has a proper sense of the old comedy … His decorative artificiality has, in short, style, conviction. It is precisely this quality which the revival as a whole lacks.’ (The Times, 26 September 1945)
Bibliographic reference
Pinkham, Roger (ed.) Oliver Messel: an exhibition held at the Theatre Museum, Victoria and Albert Museum, 22 June - 30 September 1983. London: Victoria and Albert Museum, 1983. 200p., ill ISBN 0905209508)
Other number
ROT 8821 - TM Rotation Number
Collection
Accession number
S.215-2006

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Record createdJuly 27, 2006
Record URL
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