CULTURE / BEHIND THE SCENES
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Behind The Scenes A TRIP TO NARNIA Most of us have sat in the audience of a theatre performance at some point in our life, admiring every element of its orchestration and Æ]QLQ\a WZ XMZPIX[ VW\ LMXMVLQVO on the play!). That said, what we see is only one element of a complex web of expertise and devotion, every ingredient as crucial as the next, taking the audience from an auditorium into a magical world of imagination. One of theatre’s stand-out tools is costume; a plethora of visual textures and colours, bringing even a minimal set to life. Today, on a rainy October day, York Theatre Royal gave me the keys to their treasure trove of costumes. So, as a semi-novice to the world of theatre I can’t articulate the excitement of this place, the downstairs wardrobes are wall \W _ITT ÆWWZ \W KMQTQVO KWTW]Z[ textures, eye-popping magic. Representing a fantasy dressing up box that covers every era, every genre, every colour - this is
the clothing equivalent of stepping through the wardrobe into Narnia. <PM XIV\WUQUM ZIQT[ ÅTT \_W P]OM aisles of the labyrinth. Up close I was surprised by the detail in every piece, the lining, the padding, the utter perfection of what are essentially works of art. I am astounded to learn that they are handmade.
all madly beavering away in the studio above the costume closet.
Berwick Kaler has his own dressmaker who works from home on a domestic machine, crafting every element of these extremely heavy and detailed costumes. Some of the costumes are in fact so heavy that they have to be JZQMÆa TW_MZML WV\W 3ITMZ WVTa NWZ PQU \W ÆMM\QVOTa IXXMIZ WV [\IOM before it is removed again. The Queen Victoria Costume that he frequently wears weighs a whole stone and a half.
With pantomime season now here (the team’s biggest project of the year) freelancers are called in for a long journey of amendments, washing, and dressing. Back-toback performances until February give the team little space to catch their breath.
With walls adorned with illustrations, rails of trimmings and piles of sample materials it is easy to see that the magic is made here. Yet the sheer magnitude of some of the tasks they undertake somehow seems unfeasible.
So, next time you’re at the theatre and become embroiled in the scenes, allow yourself a moment to consider the labour of love that goes into each and everyone of the costumes.
Aside from a small army of freelancers, the team consists of Å^M XMWXTM \PM PMIL WN _IZLZWJM To enquire about hiring costumes contact: two cutters and two assistants, KW[\]UMPQZM(aWZS\PMI\ZMZWaIT KW ]S
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AUTHOR - VICKY PARRY