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Minoan fresco depicting a leaping bull.
EARLY TIMES: FROM RITUALS TO THEATRE
Mycenaean rituals
During the Mycenaean period (1600â1100 BC) in Greece, the cult of Demeter and her daughter Persephone demanded various rites and ceremonies. Based on the legend of the abduction of Persephone by the King of Hades and her rescue by her mother, week-long rituals centred around a symbolic narration of the story of the two goddesses and involved processions, animal sacrifice and getting high on sacred intoxicants (thought to be barley wine enhanced with magic mushrooms and laced with ergot). It is not difficult to relate this story to the yearly cycle and abundance or otherwise of the harvest.
The Minoan bull cult
In Crete, the Minoansâ cult of the bull gave rise to exceedingly dramatic customs where young acrobats performed death-defying stunts in which they leapt over huge sacred bulls. This must have been as great and noisy a spectacle as the running of the bulls is today in Spain. The young men had very little in the way of costume, appearing to wear a small leather kilt and a waistcinching corset made from reinforced leather. Long black ringlets, a leather cap and boots that resembled todayâs boxing or dance boots completed this surprisingly modern, very sexy look. The corset belt was probably made of hide, moulded and steamed into shape, and it offered some protection to vital organs from the horns of the bad-tempered bull. I do wonder what the mortality rate was.
Greek drama
Around the sixth century BC, the Greeks took the giant leap from fertility rituals to theatre as we might recognize it today: dramas of the emotions and behaviour of ordinary, if sometimes crazily extreme, people.
Greek drama was invariably played in masks. The theatres were so enormous that the basic expression of a character needed to be enlarged in order to be visible from the back. After all, few actors are especially noble or godlike (and none of them were women, who were almost entirely excluded from public life). Curiously enough, the masks were thought to protect the actors from the more malign aspects of their characters. Also, the masksâ flared mouth parts may have acted as little megaphones that helped to project the actorsâ voices. Each âtypeâ had an instantly recognizable mask, ranging from gods and heroes to innocent virgins, wily slaves and my favourite, âa harlot left off tradeâ.
The costumes utilized everyday garments such as the chiton or tunic and the hemateon, a cloak-like garment worn over the shoulders. These would have been made of dyed wool or linen and appear to have been decorated with traditional stencilled patterns. The gods and others playing tragic roles wore boots called cothurni, which elevated them above the other actors.
One startling aspect of costumes for popular comedy was the persistent use of the oversized phallus of red leather (probably a tradition inherited from earlier fertility rites). Since it must have been difficult to look at anything else, perhaps the very idea of being upstaged â so familiar to most actors â owes its origins to having to compete with a 60cm (2ft) leather phallus!
Classical Greek actorsâ masks, used to show various expressions and emotions.
THIRTEENTH TO FIFTEENTH CENTURIES
Drama in the Christian era: mystery plays
Given both the joyous and persistent use of sex on Greek and Roman stages and the fact that performers were considered to be on a level with prostitutes, it is hardly surprising that Christianity was totally hostile to all existing forms of theatre. Serious theatre almost died out during the first four centuries of the Christian era. Therefore there is a certain irony in the fact that it was the medieval Catholic Church that reanimated drama in the guise of Bible-based morality and mystery plays. Since few people could read their own language, never mind the Greek and Latin of the scriptures, the clergy found that the most effective way of teaching the stories and the morals of the Christian faith was to act out Bible stories in dramatic form.
An Edward Bawden poster depicting scenes from the York Mystery Plays including The Adoration and The Risen Christ.
Adoration of the Magi by E. Gattal.
I consider it a logical inference that the large range of liturgical garments â a set of vestments in each of the seven liturgical colours owned by the churches â would have been adapted to dress angels and saints. One only has to look at the paintings and sculptures of the period to see that this would have made sense. Everyday clothes were used for secular characters; costumes of suede decorated with appropriately placed leaves (an early âonesieâ, in fact) were used to simulate nudity; and performers might wear long wigs known as âhairysâ, which were made of horsehair or human hair.
The origins of costume design: masques
By the fifteenth century, the religious displays of the Middle Ages had given way to more secular imagery. In a dramatic entertainment called a masque, masked performers played classical gods and legendary heroes such as Agamemnon and CĂŚsar, and were accompanied by dancers, singing boys and musicians dressed as nymphs, fauns and satyrs. Such processions, with their attendant banquets and firework displays, clearly featured an extremely high design content, not to mention top-class stage management skills. Figures representing qualities such as joy, hope or fear were carried over from the morality plays of the Middle Ages, but the classical element eventually prevailed, providing the excuse for ever more exotic costumes. (See also âInigo Jonesâ)
Inigo Jones designs for figures from the masque, The Fortunate Isles.
SIXTEENTH TO SEVENTEENTH CENTURIES
Commedia dellâarte
Commedia dellâarte is a form of theatre which began in Italy in the sixteenth century characterized by masked âtypesâ and, for the first time in European history, featured women on stage. Originally the plays, based on well-loved stories or scenarios, were entirely improvised. Italian theatre historians, such as Roberto Tessari, and Luciano Pinto, believe commedia was a response to the political and economic crises of the time. It became the first entirely professional form of theatre funded by audience donations and, as such, was free to critique the current political situation. The commedia discovered a formula which both Hollywood and TV sitcoms, serials and soaps have since exploited to the full â the audience is able to identify with a range of immediately recognizable âtypesâ or characters, and their stories are given fresh impetus by constantly changing situations. Costume was essential to commedia dellâarte for the instant identification of the characters, Harlequinâs diamond patchwork and the âdroopy drawersâ of Pantalone (which persist in the word âpantaloonsâ) are obvious examples.
Shakespeareâs time (1564â1616)
It is generally assumed that most actors wore a version of the fashionable dress of the day with appropriate additions. This is borne out by the sartorial anachronisms to be found in Shakespeareâs texts. There is a well-known line in Julius CĂŚsar about âsweaty nightcapsâ being thrown in the air. The only known Shakespearean drawing is of a 1595 production of Titus Andronicus by Henry Peac...
