Eve was a small Central London night club which opened in 1953 and was well-known for its imaginative floor-shows. Its founder, Helen O'Brien, devised witty entertainments which contained all the elements traditionally associated with glamorous night clubs - music, dance and parades of attractive showgirls - but presented them in a highly original way. Her designer, Ronald Cobb, created the costumes for sequences with such unexpected themes as Shakespeare's plays, Aldous Huxley's Brave New World, and The Mind of Goya. The club appealed to a sophisticated audience that enjoyed spotting the references.

Eve's showgirls wore costumes that were minimal but elaborate, no more than a headdress, sleeves and a G-string, but all incorporated amusing references and symbols appropriate to the theme. This design was part of a sequence with the title 'Bibliotheque' in which the girls personified different literary genres, including Science Fiction, the Crime Novel and Drama. Shakespeare represented the theatre and Ronald Cobb designed costumes to illustrate Hamlet,Macbeth, Romeo and Juliet, Antony and Cleopatra, The Merchant of Venice, A Midsummer Night's Dream. For Hamlet Cobb devised a headdress decorated with a crown, from which rises the turret of Elsinore castle pierced by a dagger to symbolise revenge. It is flanked by the skull of Yorick the King's jester, wearing his jester's hat, and the sinister ghost of Hamlet's Father. The sleeves are in medieval style, the one worn on the right arm is a feminine version of the style traditionally associated with Hamlet, the other is spotted with large red stylised drops of blood. The chains round the showgirl's neck suggest that 'Denmark's a prison'. Thus far the costume can be called dramatic; it becomes comic with a G-string decorated with the white face and golden hair of the drowned Ophelia.