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

Costume design by Hugh Stevenson for Shylock in The Merchant of Venice, showing full length male figure facing towards left with a cane in the left hand, wearing full length cross-over black robe, the neck and sleeves edged in greenish yellow; visible at the neck and below the sleeves in a brown red doublet with orange buttons and bands; the sleeves edges are frilled. Around the waist is a blue sash, diagonally striped in red brown and yellow. The figure is bearded with wears the hair in ringlets and on the head is a hat in greenish yellow with brown red vertical stripes. The shoes are red brown with orange patterning around the ankle. The design is inscribed with the name of the role, actor and fabric details and is signed and dated.

Cyril W. Beaumont Bequest

This is one of 25 designs by Hugh Stevenson for a programme of excerpts from Shakespeare devised for a British Council tour 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.165-2000