Costume design by Hugh Durrant for Rosemarie Ford as Dick in the walkdown of "Dick Whittington", Birmingham Hippodrome, 1993.

Costume design for Rosemarie Ford as Dick in the walkdown. The design depicts a full length female figure wearing a "medieval" style pantomime costume. The figure wears a tight fitting thigh length jacket with sleeves that end in elaborate flounces & ribbons at the elbow; decorated with black, white & gold stripes, a shield of the City of London, and a jewelled belt worn around the hips. The figure also wears a pair of tights, a pair of high heeled gold boots, a black garter worn around the right thigh, and an elaborated "medieval" style black & gold hat decorated with white plumes and jewels.

Given by Hugh Durrant

This costume design by Hugh Durrant is part of a group of designs donated to the Theatre Museum by the artist in 1994. The design was executed for a production of the pantomime "Dick Whittington" performed at the Birmingham Hippodrome on 22nd December 1993. The show was directed by Carole Todd, and the lighting was designed by Andrew Gardner. The cast included Lesley Joseph as Fairy Bow Bells, John Nettles as King Rat, Rosemarie Ford as Dick, Jeffrey Holland as Ada the Cook, and Wayne Sleep as Tommy the Cat.

The production was filmed for inclusion in the National Video Archive of Stage Performance at the Theatre Museum in February 1994 (Catalogue numbers 94/04/V/9001 and 94/04/V/9002 ). These designs were partly acquired as a compliment to the film with the aim of recording the creative progress from the designer's drawings to their realisation on stage.

Historical significance: An excellent example of late 20th century costume design for pantomime, which is currently poorly represented in the Theatre Museum Collection.

Reason For Production: Commission

S.767-2001