Tadhg Hébert
Originally written in 1592 and set between 1307 and 1327, Edward II is a political drama by Christopher Marlowe. Themes of queerness, class, religion and state, women's role in politics, and the dying of a monarchy (or an empire) run throughout the play. As both a design project but also as an analysis of text, I decided that the perfect setting for my production of this text was the Russian Imperial Court in the 1880's and 1890's, just before the Revolution.
I took great inspiration from turn of the century painters like Viktor Mikhailovich Vasnetsov and Ilya Repin, contemporary illustrators such as Juliette Brocal, the black and white period photography of William Carrick as well as the early colour photography of Sergey Prokudin-Gorsky.
For this project, I succeeded in designing 20 costumes for a reduced cast of six characters. For the final, realised costume I decided on making the final costume worn by the character Spencer the Younger; a full-skirted wool frock coat inspired by those seen in much of the photography of William Carrick, a red kosovorotka peasant shirt with hand stitched embroidery at the closure, and a pair of brown linen tailored trousers. The character of Spencer the Younger is a servant who has been elevate to companion of the king so it was important to me in designing his ensembles to balance both traditional more working class clothing of the region and the wealth that would grant a character like him access to fashionable, European inspired men's wear.
For the technical element of the minor, we were tasked with taking inspiration from a film set in the 19th century to create an all-white women's wear costume. For this I chose the white gown worn by the character of Angelica in the 1963 Italian film Il Gattopardo (The Leopard), an 1860's evening gown designed by Piero Tosi. I was drawn to this film for the purpose of this project not only because of this white gown, but also because of the broader collection of stunning women's costumes throughout it. Basing the silhouette partially on the structural undergarments of the period (a corset and crinoline), my version of the gown was also shaped using layers of tulle, cotton, and muslin in the skirt and exaggerating the shoulders with layers of muslin ruffles to further the contrast between them and the waist. All told, the skirt was composed of more than 30 meters of fabric to create the desired volume with an additional 30 meters of fabric for the ruffles along the hem of it. At that point the corset underneath the ensemble was needed to support the weight of the skirt for the model in addition to shaping the silhouette.
Borne from the idea that if the portrayal of female characters is influenced by the male gaze then how might that same male gaze influence how male characters are visually presented to an audience and what might we be able to infer about that audience? I analysed various male characters from film and television not generally thought of as queer and viewed not only them through a potential queer lense but discussed whether the same lense might be applicable to the viewer.
Tadhg Hébert is a costume designer with a passion for historical costuming and men's wear. He is keenly interested in the writing and performance that goes into creating a character and aims to use a wealth of historical and artistic references to strengthen this character and create compelling, narrative-driven, and beautiful costumes that uplift storytelling. Having worked in live theatre and on film sets, Tadhg has experience as a dresser, maker, and designer on both amateur and professional productions.
