Costume Design Blog

Hamlet … Evaluation from the Other Side

There is so much I could say about this project. Now that it’s over, and a month has passed, I come to the place that I do with many of my shows… review and critique. The show’s design took many twists and turns throughout the process.

I’m almost hesitant to list them here because most designers, while admitting that some changes occurred, will try and claim that they initiated the changes, and that they were happy about them. I will make no such claim here. I will say though, that I think looking back, all of the changes contributed to a better show.

We called it “steampunk-lite” in design. Those familiar with steampunk will no doubt call it “steampunk-non-existent,” but there are enough solid references to the steampunk culture that I think it can be counted among the sources for the design.

For those of you who have not yet heard of steampunk, I would direct you here or here or here to get a sense of the style. Basically it is a combination of Victorian dress, and a fascination with science or machinery. This is a very exciting subculture style to me. Lots of intricate detail work. Lots of fun combinations. And a few HUGE problems for a design of Hamlet.

1. Most steampunk clothing is geared (pun intended) toward women. In Hamlet, there are two female characters. What do we do with all of the men?
2. Many images of steampunk online look like costumes. They don’t look like real people because they aren’t intended to look like the rest of the society. This was perhaps the largest problem, as we wanted Hamlet to be accessible to the audience of a mostly non-urban community. An audience that may not have been familiar with the text of Hamlet. We couldn’t have the audience looking at the costumes, and not paying attention to the story. So how do we keep them from looking “costumey”?
3. Unfortunately, many characters in the world of steampunk, do not translate to the characters of Hamlet. There are no tinkering, scientific women, nor are there evil mad scientist men. And, we didn’t want to loose the Danish flavor of the piece. Cold, barren, high fashion, increasingly became more important that “steampunk”.

What we did use from the world of steampunk culture, was a sense of bound, and unbound. Brass fittings, lacing, buckles, and leather. Unique combinations of clothing pieces, watch chains, and goggles also came in. Some examples:

Ophelia had layers of clothing including a chiffon overskirt that was hitched up with a series of trimming and small buckles. She also had a chocker that included buckle details.

The armies had variations on a theme, with long coats, fingerless gloves, and tall gaiter-spats that buckled up the side.

The players included pieces that are stereotypically steampunk: goggles on the top hat for the first player, and watch chains on the corset bodice for the player queen.

Ultimately, we came to the issue that I think many productions attempting to transpose Shakespeare from Elizabethan to any other time period or culture runs into. While he was brilliant and wrote universal themes that can be adapted to virtually any place, any time, it doesn’t always work.

We have a commitment to the script that cannot be ignored. We have an audience that is unfamiliar with the language. And we have a desire to make this show “something special.”

Everyone asks, “what is your concept for this show?” when you say that you are doing Shakespeare. They don’t always ask if you are doing, say, an Arthur Miller piece. Or Beckett. Or Brecht. But the more you try and shoehorn Shakespeare into something specific (like steampunk) the harder it is to get there and justify your choices.

Which is why, in the end, we used a variety of sources from steampunk, to Goth, to punk, to high fashion, to Manga, to deciding that nothing would simply button down the front.

This is a really good example of why design and theatre in general are truly a process. The director and other designers and I sat down and came up with a fantastic concept, using steampunk as our guide. However, as we got into things and looked at the direction our concept was taking us – away from the storytelling that is the heart and soul of theatre – we had to shift direction.

Changing direction mid stream can be frustrating … infuriating even. But that doesn’t change the fact that it’s necessary and critical; if we want to have a successful production. At the end of the day, I’m incredibly proud of this Hamlet. No men in tights here. Just a raw, gritty production that allowed Shakespeare’s story to unfold night-after-night in front of an audience that was changed in the viewing.

Theatre (or film or television) is hard work. Anyone who tells you otherwise is selling something.

But there’s no other work I’d rather do.

4 Comments to Hamlet … Evaluation from the Other Side

Leave a comment