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Mary Stuart
Hurry, Leslie, born 1909 - died 1978 - Enlarge image
Mary Stuart
- Object:
Set design
- Place of origin:
Great Britain (drawn)
- Date:
1958 (made)
- Artist/Maker:
Hurry, Leslie, born 1909 - died 1978 (designer)
Old Vic Theatre (producer) - Materials and Techniques:
Ink, pencil, crayon, gouache and watercolour on paper.
- Credit Line:
Given by Mrs Caro Rathbone
- Museum number:
S.1541-2014
- Gallery location:
In Storage
Set design by Leslie Hurry for Set VI of Schiller's Mary Stuart, Old Vic, 1958.
Leslie Hurry (1909-1978) trained at the Royal Academy and during the 1930s became known as a surrealist painter. A one-man show in London in 1942 was seen by the theatre director, Michael Benthall, who recommended Hurry to the dancer and choreographer, Robert Helpmann, then planning a ballet based on Shakespeare's Hamlet. The success of his designs set Hurry on a second career as one of the most distinguished theatre designers of his generation. He designed operas, ballets and plays, notably Swan Lake for the Sadler's Wells Ballet in 1943, a production which stayed in the repertoire for thirty years; Venice Preserv'd for Peter Brook (1953); the Ring Cycle at Covent Garden (1954), and Troilus and Cressida at Stratford for Peter Hall (1960), famous for being staged in a sand pit.
