Our Cotsumes.

Costuming:

In the beginning, with Rachel and the class, we had to define when we wanted SOTM to be staged. In the ’20s, in the ’40s..? Eventually, we decided collectively to stage it in Italy of the 1940s. This meant that we were still retaining the Italian background and setting alluded to in the script. This time period was accessible to the play, the social classes that are represented in SOTM were also reflected in this era. But then.. what to costume the cast in!?

Research of this stage was required- we looked into what they would have worn. Here are some of the inspirations that we used.

We established that the men wore hats, for the women, accessories were very important. Gloves were worn regularly, and even small hats for females existed. One thing that we also used for inspiration of the characters was the game Cluedo. Rachel and I spent some time looking into the personalities of the cluedo characters, and trying ot match them up to the characters in SOTM.

We decided that Smeraldina would be Mrs white (prettyself explanitory because of the maid’s outfit,) Florindo was to be Mr Green, we decided this because of the ‘proper’ ways in which both characters carried themselves. Pantaloon would be Colenel Mustard, as it alludes to old age and obliviousness to an extent. 

Originally, as in the original COmmedia style, the lovers did not wear masks and this set them apart from the rest of the masked characters. Because we had decided not to use masks, we decided that there was still the need to dress them in a different way to the other characters, to show their status within the play. Our first idea for this was to dress them both in white. This would allude to their youth and innocence, and create a different aura around Clarice and Silvio- as though their love was pure.

Truffaldino was a character which we enjoyed creating the costume for. Because he was a servant, we wanted this to be expressed through his clothes, however we did not want thim looking too sharp. We decided that having in a costume like this one:

 

However this would be too sharp for his character, we wanted to represent his crazy personality. We decided that he would be wearing something like the above, but perhaps with a dirty/crumpled shirt, maybe pants that were a little to short for him, and if he was wearing a hat, the hat would never sit quite right, he would always fidget with it and this would represent his personality further.

Brighella- this character was eventually changed from a male part, to a female part, so the original idea of having him dressed similar to Truffaldino would no longer work! Brighella was eventually developed into a loving, motherly, italian woman, who was very affectionate to all those who came to her inn. This meant that she was dressed in a flowery/maid-y dress, and a small apron on. This made her look homely and welcoming to those who stayed there.

Because Beatrice was a female character pretending to be a man.. this meant that the costume needed to show the audience that she was in fact, female, but fool the other characters that she was a man. We developed this idea so that Beatrice would wear a full suit, perhaps not completely fitting to her body as it was her brother’s clothes. She would wear a hat as so distinct to this era of time, btu underneath this hat, she would reveal a full head of hair. When other characters were not present she would reveal her true identity to the audience.

The ideas for Clarice and Silvio changed when a makeup mask was introduced and so there was a clear distinction between the lovers and other characters. The costume of Clarice (my character,) took some sourcing to find, as it was very difficult to find something that was appropriate to the era, but also to my character’s age. Silvio’s costume was refined so that he seemed more proper, in that he wore a sash. This revealed his protective nature of Clarice, and also reflected his proud personality.

Pantaloon ended up being dressed in a full suit, with a suit coat with tails, a vest and a padding underneath it all to make the actor, Tim, look larger. This padding was also provided for the First Waiter, who wore a suit that reflected his job. He also had a moustache which reflected his somewhat sleazy nature.

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