Not currently on display at the V&A

The Seagull

Costume Design
1970 (made)
Artist/Maker
Place of origin

Costume design by Michael Annals for Tregorin in Act II of Anton Chekhov's play, The Seagull, Habima Theatre, Tel Aviv, 1970.

Michael Annals (1938-1990) trained at Hornsey College of Art and began his career designing sets and costumes for the Old Vic. In 1963 the newly formed National Theatre Company moved into the Old Vic and Annals joined them, having his first major success with his designs for Peter Shaffer's historical epic, The Royal Hunt of the Sun (1964). He went on to have an international career, designing for the theatre and for ballet, opera and film, but is most closely associated with the National Theatre, where he created notable settings for a range of productions, including O'Neill's Long Day's Journey into Night starring Laurence Olivier, Hecht and MacArthur's The Front Page and Shaw's Heartbreak House. Annals frequently worked in the United States and was Associate Professor of Scenic Design at Yale in 1966-1967. In 1984 he gave up the stage and took up photography and illustration.


Object details

Categories
Object type
TitleThe Seagull (generic title)
Materials and techniques
Watercolour, ink, pencil, crayon and ballpoint pen on paper with fabric swatch
Brief description
Costume design by Michael Annals for Tregorin in Act II of Anton Chekhov's play, The Seagull, Habima Theatre, Tel Aviv, 1970
Physical description
Costume design for Boris Tregorin in Act II of The Seagull. Full length male figure wearing a white jacket and trousers, a light brown tie and a wide brimmed navy hat. He holds a book in his right hand and some reeds in his left. With pencil annotations by the artist, giving details of fabrics, a drawing in ballpoint pen showing a pocket, left, and attached fabric swatch.
Dimensions
  • Design height: 57cm
  • Design width: 38.8cm
  • Mount height: 75cm
  • Mount width: 54cm
Marks and inscriptions
Transliteration
Credit line
Bequeathed by Michael Annals
Summary
Costume design by Michael Annals for Tregorin in Act II of Anton Chekhov's play, The Seagull, Habima Theatre, Tel Aviv, 1970.

Michael Annals (1938-1990) trained at Hornsey College of Art and began his career designing sets and costumes for the Old Vic. In 1963 the newly formed National Theatre Company moved into the Old Vic and Annals joined them, having his first major success with his designs for Peter Shaffer's historical epic, The Royal Hunt of the Sun (1964). He went on to have an international career, designing for the theatre and for ballet, opera and film, but is most closely associated with the National Theatre, where he created notable settings for a range of productions, including O'Neill's Long Day's Journey into Night starring Laurence Olivier, Hecht and MacArthur's The Front Page and Shaw's Heartbreak House. Annals frequently worked in the United States and was Associate Professor of Scenic Design at Yale in 1966-1967. In 1984 he gave up the stage and took up photography and illustration.
Bibliographic reference
Arnold Wengrow, Observe and show: the theatre art of Michael Annals (London: V&A Publications, 2003)
Collection
Accession number
S.444-1991

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Record createdNovember 22, 2016
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