Noel Coward’s Ghosts: Costuming Independent Theatre

My goodness it’s been awhile since the old blog had a post! Alas I’ve been up to my eyeballs in theatre related work. For most of the fall and into January I was once again working for a large regional theatre in the props department. It’s never boring and encompasses a wide range of things – from making mirrors more worn looking, to reupholstering a whole sofa, to making a 1930s german magazine from scratch.

 

January was (as I knew it would be) jam packed with very long days. Overlapping with my ‘day job’ in props, I also was in rehearsals for an independent theatre production of Noel Coward’s Blithe Spirit. Independent theatre quite often means that we don’t have the resources (people, money and stock items) that a larger company does. Being an experienced seamstress/fashion history nerd and props builder, I also shopped for, built and modified clothes and household items for the show.

The play was written in 1941, and since we were working on a tight budget, I tried to thrift as much as possible. I kept an eye out for 70s/80s does the 40s, and even modern pieces that could be dressed to look the part. Fortunately, its a period of history that can be cobbled together from more recent clothing if you know what shapes to go for. Appropriate hair, makeup and accessories help too.

Here’s what I came up with (with help from cast members who brought in what they had as a start for some of the looks).

Charles Condomine (played by Simon Miron): Upper class gentleman author who enjoys a dry martini and having affairs.

The Smoking Jacket was bizarrely difficult to find. Men wore this luxury garment from the 17th century in various forms while relaxing at home, and often when smoking tobacco as a protective layer over their clothing. The classic style has a shawl collar and turned up cuffs, not far removed from a modern bathrobe. In fact, I had my eye out for a robe that could be shortened for the purpose, but none were to be had thrifting. Eventually, I obtained one from a theatre costume stock where I rented some other pieces from. The Head of Wardrobe is a friend there and said that she’d bought it cheap for the same reason, and wouldn’t mind if I modified it.

Here it is ‘Before’:

 

It’s amazing how much the look changes from dressing gown to smoking jacket with the addition of simple details. After chopping off about 6 inches from the hem, I added black satin to the collar as a contrast, a black belt tie, and black ribbon detail at the cuffs.

 

The remaining items of Charles’ wardrobe were either borrowed from that same theatre’s stock or found second hand. I was particularly excited about these two day jackets that fit Simon perfectly, one of which was on the clearance rack of my favourite (already quite cheap) thrift store and cost me a total of $0.75!

 

Ruth Condomine (Stefanie Wiens): Charles’ second wife – “Not at all ethereal”

Ruth was tricky, in that she has the most costumes in the show. The play takes place over several days, and while the men can get away with wearing their same evening clothes etc, Ruth helps show the passage of time, and *spoiler alert* comes back as a ghost in act 2.

In the opening scene, Ruth and Charles are having a dinner party, followed by a seance. Ruth’s evening attire started with this very 1970s polyester knit dress.

 

It belonged to Stefanie, and has a great appliqué design on the skirt. The top was unfortunately sporty, with oddly proportioned sleeves. I struggled with how to make it work, but eventually decided to unpick the waist seam and give it a wide waistband to make it a skirt only. By some miracle, I found a complimentary green vintage rayon at the fabric store, and found this pattern in my stash.

 

I modified the sleeves to be a little more full (more early 40s and more flattering). Rather than a large bow (not very Ruth), I used some white buttons from my stash for the front closure with snaps underneath them, and matching buttons on the sleeve cuffs. I love the finished look – a far cry from the original dress…

 

Ruth has 2 day looks – one pretty much a straight up shirtwaist dress of Stef’s, and one made from a sleeveless knit dress and a thrifted georgette tunic that I cut the sleeves and part of the hem (used as a cowl neck) off of to make the faux blouse effect.
All of Ruth’s costume changes are fairly quick, so having a separate blouse would’ve been too much to put on and arrange backstage. I also added a back zip to the green dress for easier changing.

 

Here’s where things get interesting/more challenging. One of Ruth’s day looks has to be doubled in all grey – a convention of the play is that dead people are entirely greyscale. It was difficult to find the right fabrics  in that colour, but lucked out finally and constructed from scratch Ruth’s post grave frock – a double of her green faux sleeve number. I even found a grey leather belt that was close to the brown one used in her matching outfit.

 

Elvira Condomine (Charlene Van Buekenhout): Charles’ first wife – liked to party and died of a heart attack while listening to one of the BBC musical programmes while recovering from pneumonia.

Elvira only has one ensemble, but was the most time consuming build. Drawing inspiration from a 1940s glam photo I found online, I drafted a chiffon negligée in ethereal grey with bishop sleeves, button cuffs and a deco inspired belt. There is a lot of fabric in this garment and chiffon requires patience. Not having much time to turn it out, I made adjustments on the fly in the week leading up to opening. After lots of tweaks, it finally came out pretty well. It floats very nicely as she moves. Underneath the negligée is a thrifted bias cut slip that I dyed grey to match. I have costumed and clothed Charlene previously (i.e. her Wedding Dress) and she carries off this style so beautifully.

Both ghost wives also wore grey tights, grey shoes and applied a grey tone foundation to exposed skin (script specific).

 

Madame Arcati (Sarah Constible): The local medium whom Charles invites over for a séance as research for his new book.

Madame Arcati is an over the top character who believes herself to be able to contact the dead. She is described as wearing ‘barbaric’ clothing which in this context means exotically influenced. Her first look was cobbled together from some good thrifted/found pieces. Her cloak was built for the show, as was a taffeta turban that did not make the final design due to it causing visibility issues. We changed it out for a burgundy headscarf.

The second (daywear) look consists of a found blouse and tweed jacket, ‘exotic’ purple tights, custom skirt and matching hat by HLB.

The beret is a modified version of this 1960s pattern with a fold over detail at the back and an assortment of feathers.

Inspired by this 1940s pattern image.

It was a race to the finish, but once we were up and running I was pretty pleased with how everything turned out. I have even received compliments on my work from audience members.

We sold out the entire run purely on word of mouth. Support your local arts organizations and see indie theatre if you can. They work  hard to give you a unique experience, and usually with limited resources!

~ Heather

Additional Show Info:

Blithe Spirit by Noel Coward

Produced by: Echo Theatre (Winnipeg, Canada)

Jan 24- Feb 13, 2015