Thus, Herbert’s formation as a costume and set designer was complementary not only to her personal interests, but also to her own concept of style in relation to the radical modernist transformation that the theatre scene was experiencing in the decades following World War II, as summarized through Edward Gordon Craig’s less is more motto. Craig was an actor and set designer, who claimed that ‘everything on the stage had to emerge from the play’ and that ‘distillation was better than elaboration’3.
Craig, E. G. in Farthing, S. and Eyre, R. (2011) The Sketchbooks of Jocelyn Herbert. London: Royal Academy of Arts. pp. 19 - 20
3
JH/4/62 Bristol 2225. Jocelyn Herbert’s sketch for David Storey’s play Early Days (1980). The Jocelyn Herbert Archive, at the National Theatre, London.
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