September 18, 2019 Bev Hulme Leave a comment
Our first Uni module!
The Brief
We were given 6 different Directors visions to re-imagine the Kenneth MacMillan ballet of Romeo and Juliet, set to the music of Prokofiev.
The vision I chose was one I originally felt I should steer clear of! The challenge was ‘make a production geared to an audience of young teenagers today’. We were asked to look at examples where families keep young lovers apart and consider ‘how to depict that on stage so that young audiences will relate to it in an immediate way’.
Why did I originally feel that was a scenario to avoid? Because I felt that ballet is a niche art form that most young teenagers would simply not be able to relate to it and I didn’t think I could come up with a costume idea that would be sufficient to change their view. Sitting watching a ballet for 2 hours doesn’t fit with their immediate, on-line, short attention-span, self-absorbed lifestyle – or at least that’s what we are led to believe. I also felt the classical music would be an anathema to most teenagers as they are listening to hip-hop, grime etc and they would just not relate to ballet and classical music.
We were tasked to create 6 different costumes, 2 each for 3 characters from the story, to fit our chosen vision. We had to analyse the characters, draw and design the costumes, all the while justifying why we had made our choices.
Merc Man’s Costume for the Ball where he has to be in disguise and the technical drawings or ‘flats’ showing the design detail and the fabric swatches.
My Vision
What changed my mind? There was a pivotal moment while researching different productions of Romeo & Juliet I found one which was featured in a Channel 4 documentary called ‘Ballet Hoo’. The Birmingham Royal Ballet put together a production with young people who had little or no previous exposure to, or interest in ballet. This was a ‘social exercise’ where they brought together young people to see if they could work in a structured environment, take instruction and be ‘pushed’ to new limits. I couldn’t find the entire TV series on-line but the extracts I found were so inspiring it changed my view.
At the same time, having just moved back to the UK after many years living abroad, I was shocked by the daily stabbings in this country over gang and drug related issues. Shakespeare wrote about futile killings in Romeo & Juliet and the parallels are shocking. This became the seed for my story.
Tybalt’s Ball Scene costume with technical drawings and fabric swatches. I wanted to make this very dramatic and he would stand out with the gold leather on the sleeves and the bottom of the jacket
My version of Romeo & Juliet is set in London in the present day. My two ‘families’ are rival gangs in the drugs world. One is a triad gang, based around an Asian family, the ‘Kai Pu Lait’ clan. They had come to the UK after the Opium wars to settle in Chinatown and become rich because they control much of the London drug scene through the earlier part of the 20th Century. My other ‘family’ is a gang called the ME8. They are a newer drugs gang who are based in Dalston E8, around Montague Street, but have ambitions to increase their territory and move into the Soho base of the Kai Pu Lait. This scenario created the two ‘warring’ families.
Juliet’s Ball scene costume with a traditional Cheongsam top but a very delicate, two layer, gold and mauve skirt.
The Characters
Once I had the basis for the family dispute it was quite easy to fit my characters into the story. Zhū lìyè (Juliet) is the rich, protected daughter of the Kai Pu Lait family. Her cousin Tàibó, (Tybalt) the ‘head of security’ for the family, is a slick, smooth Bruce Lee wanna-be who is fiercely loyal to his Uncle and not prepared to give any ground to the usurpers. Merc Man (Mercutio) is a street dealer for the ME8 gang and Romeo’s best friend. A grime-loving, rapping street guy who, when he finally makes his first ‘big money’ plans to buy a signature, blue Mercedes, hence his nickname.
The Story unfolds
The teenagers story fitted the bill perfectly. The ill-fated young lovers meet at a local youth group. Romeo, the young son of the leader of the ME8’s is being taught how to run the business and takes his position seriously although he doesn’t like the violence. Juliet has been hidden away in her big house and is about to be engaged to the son of a local corrupt politician who has always ensured her fathers position in the area.
I had a problem with Juliet’s age because although it was acceptable to marry at 13 in Shakespeare’s world, it’s not acceptable now so I had to make her a little older, 15, nearly 16. She doesn’t want to follow her parents wishes so the lovers plan to run away and head to Gretna Green to marry on her 16th birthday.
Merc Man’s market scene costume hides a machete style knife for his fight with Tybalt. The outfit is looser and easier to dance in, but is still very stylish.
The deaths of Tybalt and Merc Man happen as they fight for control of the area to sell their drugs. Romeo is so distraught at the death of his friend he takes too many drugs which leave him comatose, Juliet sees him like this, thinks he’s died of the overdose and realises her controlling parents will force her to follow family rules and ‘save face’ all her life, so she kills herself.
Would teenagers be able to relate to this modern twist on the story-line? I believe so, their lives are a daily struggle with gangs, drugs, street-life and society still has racial, religious and ethnic tensions.
The Costumes
Of course, in the end, this was the hardest part. I had to learn to draw. No more stick figures and ‘I can’t do this!’ – we were given different classes in techniques and tried to start to create a ‘style’ of our own. I still have a long way to go! I practised but in the end I still ‘cheated’ a little finding photos of real people, models and dancers, who could become my characters and I used them as the ‘frames’ on which I could build my designs.
Tybalt’s market scene costume features a shorter jacket but again I used leather, this time in black, to give him his ‘cool’ look. He is carrying an asian sword, a Dao, for his fight with Merc Man.
I put Tybalt in some suits which are based on Korean and Asian Designer clothes – this fitted my idea for his character – he would have loved to have been in a K-Pop band. Merc Man would be emulating the street style of his favourite Grime stars, Drake and Skepta. Juliet was harder because she has to blossom as a young woman from behind her parents strict control of their daughter.
My final designs for Tybalt were a combination of fabric and leather, trying to keep to smooth slick lines. He would still have to be able to dance in the costumes, but looking at the ballet in detail, most of his dancing was fairly stiff and rigid, there were changes of clothes for some scenes and he could remove his jacket for the fight scene if it was too restrictive for the choreographed steps. For Merc Man it was much easier because, as a young man following his favourite stars he would have been dressed in clothes which were based on tracksuits and easy to move around in. Juliet needed to be in dresses which were both showing a traditional Chinese element, but also very fine, light fabrics reflecting the fact she is growing into a beautiful young woman.
Juliet’s death scene costume is styled on the Cheongsam but this time in white, the colour traditionally used for death in their culture. The skirt is again two layers, the bottom layer is printed with the palest of pink Chrysanthemums which also signify death. The top layer is a gold stylised version of the same flowers.
I hope you enjoyed my ‘take’ on the story and how I tried to bring it right up to date and make it relatable to the target audience. I tried to cover every element of reworking the story and really enjoyed coming up with my characters.
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Posted in: College 2018/19, Royal Opera House Design ChallengeFiled under: Ballet, balletcostume, College 2018, costume, costumedesign, costumeideas, Design Challenge, Royal Opera House
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