[whittlebot]

I saw the much trailed, hailed by some, as a triumph. PHEDRE on Saturday evening. Helen Mirren gave a performance of measured hysteria, but was, for me, upstaged by Margaret Tyzack who perfectly portrayed the general factotum stoically enduring the antics of her charge. But why oh why this current obssession with playing the classics in modern dress! The women in gowns, ok, but the men in a nondescript semi-military uniform, not forgetting the king in what appeared to be a fishing jacket! The queen's lust in a black skinny fit top. Now it may not matter to many people but it does/did to me. The language and costumes clashed taking the edge off a production that could have been better. Two further examples of how not to do it. Tennant and Law's Hamlet. I rest my case.

[Lynette]

It's not the gals' outfits; they are more or less the same as Phedre was wearing. It's the guys. There is nothing as off putting as men's knees and their feet in sandals which is what we'd get if we had to be authentic. You can have a longish toga which just about covers the essentials but...Actually one of the best 'Classical' costumes I've seen recently is the one Greg Hicks wears as Julius Caesar - really dashing, sort of heavy belted stuff. Check it out.

[Weez]

I quite like the modern dress. We don't really *need* modern dress to be able to see how relevant these tremendously old plays still are to us in the twenty-first century, but the fact that they are still relevant means I'm ever so forgiving of modern dress. Indeed, I find it hard to conceive of a Hamlet in period dress after four different productions all done in modern. XD Although if I ever get around to directing the production that is gradually taking place in my head, I think I'd be looking at the 1860s... which will either be quite interesting or very terrible...

[Lynette]

I quite like the modern dress. We don't really *need* modern dress to be able to see how relevant these tremendously old plays still are to us in the twenty-first century, but the fact that they are still relevant means I'm ever so forgiving of modern dress. Indeed, I find it hard to conceive of a Hamlet in period dress after four different productions all done in modern. XD Although if I ever get around to directing the production that is gradually taking place in my head, I think I'd be looking at the 1860s... which will either be quite interesting or very terrible...

ooo how interesting. So this is the High Victorian crinoline? Slightly less wide for everyday. Men in frock coats, top hats with beards and moustaches. All that corsetry....I'm getting it, Weez.

[armadillo]

The RSC had authentic-style cossies for their Spanish season a few years back and I found all those codpieces very distracting... I really don't want to see Hamlet in puffy shorts and a ruff. I like the mixed togas/suits look for Deborah Warner's Julius Caesar but do people really want to see Elizabethan or Classical costumes?

Presumably Shakespeare's actors didn't wear togas? Or did they? (I assume not but maybe there's an expert in 17th century stage costumes out there who can tell all)

[Jan Brock]

The RSC had authentic-style cossies for their Spanish season a few years back and I found all those codpieces very distracting... I really don't want to see Hamlet in puffy shorts and a ruff. I like the mixed togas/suits look for Deborah Warner's Julius Caesar but do people really want to see Elizabethan or Classical costumes?

Presumably Shakespeare's actors didn't wear togas? Or did they? (I assume not but maybe there's an expert in 17th century stage costumes out there who can tell all)

One of the few contemporary drawings of a play in progress in Shakespeare's time is for Titus Andronicus (so, a Roman play). It shows the actors wearing a mix of toga-style "Roman" costumes and modern-dress (for their era of course). Scroll down in this link to see it:

http://www.britishshakespearecompany.com/diary/?cat=17

Actually Peter Hall had something interesting to say about costumes for the Roman plays which I will type in when I have time - his Coriolanus (McKellen) used a mix of togas and 20th century dress.

Best Greek play I have seen was Antigone with Michael Bryant where they just wore modern business suits, and there was no scenery. The costumes are irrelevant as long as they are not distracting.

[armadillo]

One of the few contemporary drawings of a play in progress in Shakespeare's time is for Titus Andronicus (so, a Roman play). It shows the actors wearing a mix of toga-style "Roman" costumes and modern-dress (for their era of course). Scroll down in this link to see it:

http://www.britishshakespearecompany.com/diary/?cat=17

That's really interesting - thanks. Of course, authentic togas could be very distracitng because of the Roman custom of not wearing anything under them

[Latecomer]

The RSC had authentic-style cossies for their Spanish season a few years back and I found all those codpieces very distracting... I really don't want to see Hamlet in puffy shorts and a ruff. I like the mixed togas/suits look for Deborah Warner's Julius Caesar but do people really want to see Elizabethan or Classical costumes?

Presumably Shakespeare's actors didn't wear togas? Or did they? (I assume not but maybe there's an expert in 17th century stage costumes out there who can tell all)

David Tennant pulled off the puffy shorts rather well in Love's Labour's Lost!
http://img.metro.co.uk/i/pix/2008/10/Labou...008_450x300.jpg The costumes were just gorgeous! And I have to say that Othello at The Donmar was also fab http://img.metro.co.uk/i/pix/2008/10/Labou...008_450x300.jpg

I don't mind modern or a mix though....I thought the costumes for Donmar Twelfth Night were superb and also thoroughly enjoyed the sparkly stuff in Alls Well That Ends Well at The National...they enhanced the whole gothic fairy tale idea of the production!

[Viceroy]

David Tennant pulled off the puffy shorts rather well in Love's Labour's Lost!

Ahem!

[Jan Brock]

Peter Hall was questioned about the decision to stage Coriolanus largely in modern dress. His point was that if he had used "Roman" dress then he would have lost an important means of comunicating with the audience. The example he used was that if an actor, in Roman dress, picked up a standard-issue goblet and drank from it then all it would convey was that he was drinking something. But if the same actor in the same part, in modern dress, picked up a brandy glass, or a cut-glass whiskey glass, and drank from that then there are subtle short-hand cultural references which would hint to the audience what sort of person he was, what his status was, and so on. So for that reason setting a play in a period (not necessarily the present-day) which is familiar to the audience has great benefits for a director.

That is partly why I think the Globe practice of staging plays in Elizabethan dress is fairly absurd - it is not authentic at all because in Shakespeare's day the plays were staged in "modern dress" which would have been entirely familiar to the audience in the way Hall was describing.