Costume design by Hugh Stevenson for Hamlet in a programme of scenes from Shakespeare, British Council tour, early 1950s

Costume design by Hugh Stevenson for Hamlet, showing a full-front full-length male figure black doublet and trunk hose banded in grey, with black tights and shoes. The doublet and trunk hose are banded in grey and on the sleeves are rows of vertical lines indicating slashing. At the neck is a grey frilled collar with hanging grey tasselled ties and there are ruffled frills at the wrists; the neck is open revealing a white shirt. Down the front opening is a row of ochre buttons and over the shoulders, caught up at the front opening, is an ochre chain. The design is inscribed with the name of the role and is signed and dated.
The ochre paint is used to indicate gold braid or metal.
On the reverse a pencil sketch of a male figure wearing trunk hose.

Cyril W. Beaumont Bequest

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.

This is one of 25 designs by Hugh Stevenson for a programme of excerpts from Shakespeare devised for a for a tour of Italy (possibly under the British Council) in the early 1950s. Presented by a small company led by Walter Fitzgerald it 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.

S.156-2000