ABSTRACT
This chapter offers a fresh look at costume design in nineteenth- and early-twentieth-century productions of Shakespeare in England, Germany and Russia. Using case studies from English actor-managers, the Meininger Theatre, and the Moscow Art Theatre, it explores the way costumes conveyed different kinds of truth, and examines the tensions between historicism, spectacle, and theatre. I argue that at first, early directors drew on the popularity and authority of historically accurate costume-objects to blur the boundary between high- and lowbrow theatre. Proto-directors Kemble and Kean used historical costumes to legitimate lavish spectacle onstage, under the guise of education. Georg II of Saxe-Meiningen went a step further, often using historical costumes but sometimes departing from strict accuracy to serve his dramaturgical interpretation. Edward Gordon Craig and Constantin Stanislavski built on his work, using a-historic or abstract costume design to convey their artistic truth and to reflect on the role of design in the process of making theatre (through the metatheatrical Mousetrap scene in their 1911 Hamlet). I use these case studies to reconsider the emerging relationship between directors, text, and design, examining different kinds of authority at play in Shakespearian performances of this period. This chapter re-centers scenography – especially costume – in the history of the rise of the director.
