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

Costume design by Hugh Stevenson for a basic Shakespearean costume, showing a full length male figure wearing an Elizabethan jacket with cap sleeves in chestnut covered with fows of black dashes indicating slashing and with black buttons and belt; at the neck is a white collar. The full sleeves are black with white cuffs. The trunks are black and the tights dark red brown with black shoes. To the left hand side of the figure is a pencil sketch of the trunks. The design is inscribed on the front with the name of the actor and fabric details and is signed and dated; on the back is a list of Shakespeare plays and specific characters against each.

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.174-2000