Costume design by Hugh Stevenson for Macbeth (played by John Wyse) in a programme of scenes from Shakespeare, British Council tour, early 1950s

Costume design by Hugh Stevenson for Macbeth (played by John Wyse), showing a full-front full-length bearded male figure wearing red brown doublet and trunk hose overlaid with ochre yellow bands; the sleeve beneath the puff has white ovals indicating slashing and the sleeve ends in a wrist frill; around the body from the right shoulder is a dark red brown plaid. The stockings are grey green and the shoes dark red brown trimmed with ochre and yellow. To either side of the legs are sketched three breastplates, one with annotations. The design is inscribed with the name of the role and the actor and is signed and dated.
The ochre paint is used to indicate gold braid or metal.

Cyril W. Beaumont Bequest

This is one of 25 designs by Hugh Stevenson for a programme of excerpts from Shakespeare devised for a tour of Italy (possibly under the British Council) in the early 1950s. It was performed by a small company led by Walter Fitzgerald and called for costumes that would clearly indicate the different characters while allowing for quick changes. This Stevenson achieved by creating a basic costume in the Elizabethan style for each actor to which were added robes, tunics, overdresses or accessories.
The designs are part of the collection that came to the Museum from the dance historian and publisher Cyril Beaumont and may originally have formed part of the London Archives of the Dance.

Historical significance: A group of designs showing how a designer solves the problem of creating costumes for a programme of extracts from various Shakespeare plays (which means allowing for quick changes), by creating several basic costumes which can be adapted, or to which accessories can be added, to indicate specific characters

S.152-2000