Costume design by Mark Thompson for Ferrets and Stoats in Alan Bennett's play The Wind in the Willows, National Theatre, 1990. Pen and ink, watercolour, crayon and silver paint

Two full length male figures. The left-hand figure stands side on, the torso and head turned to the front, wearing a brown waistcoat with silver buttons, braces with silver studs and a cloth tied around the neck; a tail protrudes from the back of the brown trousers, which fit into heavy-soled brown knee-high boots; he holds a silver chain in fingerless gloved hands, the nails painted brown; the hair is cut en brosse with a point down to the straight eyebrows and the facial hair covers the side cheeks and chin, with a small pencil moustache. The right-hand figure wears a long brown jacket, the cuffs and upper collar in karker brown; beneath is a yellow waistcoat, white shirt and pale yellow bow tie; the riding breeches are brown with a tail to the right; the brown riding boots fit to above the knee. He wears fingerless gloves, the finger nails painted brown, and carries a yellow whip. He wears a low brown bowler hat with a brown band, dark glasses and the facial hair covers the cheeks above a small pencil moustache. A frame is drawn around the upper figures, from mid torso to right hand shoulder of the Stoat.

The design was created by Mark Thompson for Alan Bennett's play The Wind in the Willows, after Kenneth Grahame, produced at the National Theatre in 1990. The production was directed by Nicholas Hytner.

Designing animal costumes calls for imagination tempered with practicality. In Alan Bennett's The Wind in the Willows at the National Theatre in 1990, all the characters, while recognisably animals, were also human types and Mark Thompson's witty costumes blended animal with human characteristics. There was no use of 3-D heads; the animals were defined by make-up and evocative costumes - the ferrets en brosse, the sideburns shaping the face, the studded braces, gloves and tail-hole, paws indicated by the gloves but with the fingers free - which, with the merest colour change of nails, became paws and claws. The thin pencil moustaches for stoats made them look like spivs, slick city types in country wear, with thin brimmed bowler hats. There is a disturbing impression of creatures trying to hide their true selves.

The squaring of the top quarter of the design frames and focuses the characters.

S.846-1991