Shakespeare in Elizabethan Costume: 'Period Dress' in Twenty-First-Century Performance

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Ella Hawkins (University of Birmingham, UK)

Shakespeare in Elizabethan Costume

'Period Dress' in Twenty-First-Century Performance

Ella Hawkins (University of Birmingham, UK)

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English

The Arden Shakespeare
07 September 2023

Theatre: technical & background skills

The meanings originally communicated by Elizabethan and Jacobean dress have long been confined to history. Why, then, have doublets, hose, ruffs and farthingales featured in many Shakespeare productions staged since the turn of the 21st century?

This book scrutinizes the popular practice of costuming Shakespeare’s plays in Elizabethan and Jacobean dress. It considers why this approach to design appeals to contemporary directors, designers and audiences, and how it has shaped the meaning of Shakespeare’s works in specific performance contexts.

Informed by original interviews with several prominent theatre practitioners, including Emma Rice, Gregory Doran, Jenny Tiramani, Simon Godwin, Stephen Brimson Lewis and Tom Piper, Shakespeare in Elizabethan Costume explores how various 21st-century Shakespeare productions have drawn on myths and desires associated with early modern clothing. Its discussions range from the practicalities of historical reconstruction to the appeal of early modern sartorial culture as an embodiment of wonder, spectacle and the supernatural. Productions discussed include Shakespeare’s Globe's production of Henry V (1997), the National Theatre's Twelfth Night (2017) and the Royal Shakespeare Company's The Tempest (2016).

Ella Hawkins examines the minutiae of modern design – how seams are sewn, whence fabrics are sourced – as well as the widespread cultural movements that have produced our modern relationship with the period of Shakespeare’s lifetime. This is the first book to explore fully the significance of Elizabethan-inspired design in contemporary Shakespearean performance. Shakespeare in Elizabethan Costume reframes so-called ‘period’ costuming as a dynamic collection of practices capable of refashioning textual meanings, reflecting present-day political and societal shifts and confronting contemporary injustices.

By: Ella Hawkins (University of Birmingham UK)
Imprint: The Arden Shakespeare
Country of Publication: United Kingdom
Dimensions: Height: 216mm, Width: 138mm,
ISBN: 9781350234451
ISBN 10: 1350234451
Pages: 288
Publication Date: 07 September 2023
Audience: College/higher education , Primary
Format: Paperback
Publisher's Status: Active

List of Illustrations Acknowledgements List of Abbreviations Introduction A Brief History of Jacobethanism 1. ‘Original Practices’ Costume Design at Shakespeare’s Globe: Practice as Experiment and Research 2. Tradition, Nostalgia, and Tourism: Jacobethan-inspired Costuming and the Shakespeare Institution 3. Displaced/Repurposed Elizabethan Icons 4. Fantastical Imaginings 5. The Time is Out of Joint Conclusion Appendix – Approaches to Setting at the Royal Shakespeare Company and Shakespeare’s Globe: Performance History Data Bibliography Notes Index

Ella Hawkins is a researcher at the Shakespeare Institute, University of Birmingham, UK. Her research focuses on costume design for Shakespeare. She has advised the Victoria & Albert Museum and the Royal Shakespeare Company on representations of Shakespeare’s life and works, and has created content for the Shakespeare Birthplace Trust.

Reviews for Shakespeare in Elizabethan Costume: 'Period Dress' in Twenty-First-Century Performance

Ella Hawkins has produced a detailed and insightful study of the ways in which directors, designers and audiences negotiate expectations and beliefs about Shakespeare, England and the past and the present through the use and interpretation of 'period' costume. Drawing on key 21st-century productions of Shakespeare, the book is a new and brilliant resource for understanding the ways in which costume constructs and signifies meaning on stage and offers a model for thinking about how we can look at 'period' costume with new eyes. * Kate Dorney, University of Manchester, UK * Shakespeare in Elizabethan Costume reveals the problems and opportunities offered by 'authentic' dress in modern productions, contrasting contemporary stage 'Jacobethan' costume with actual clothing from the time of Shakespeare. Backed by fresh research into early modern dress, and interviews with current costume-makers and directors, it is indispensable for anyone interested in costume - in the time of Shakespeare and now - contemporary performance, cultural history and the study of material culture. * Tiffany Stern, University of Birmingham, UK *