Theatre Design & Technology - Winter 2013 - 22

pianola tuner is banging away at my sacred and deeply loved
machine and I am half stupid with the noise.... I think that is all
for the moment. I think I have 30 yards of stuff to stencil as we
can't get brown cloth ie. Imitation and other stuff.
Best wishes for Xmas, Ever sincerely yours C Ricketts
PS. I have stenciled about 100 yards of stuff and I am in
advanced state of senile decay.

Ricketts, apparently uncompensated, spent days and nights
painting motifs on the fabrics. He did not, however, expect his
seamstresses to support his charity toward the war and to work
for unfair wages. In many descriptions of costume problems
there is a theme of concern over the payment of the irreplaceable Miss Pye. He implores Wheeler, "We have spent over £300,
all but £20, which is not enough to pay Miss Pye. I hope Miss
Ashwell will rise to the occasion and see that more is given her
as I don't want to do it myself. I am some £11 out of pocket on
glass, pearls, prints, etc. as it is."
Later, when the costumes are near completion, he writes,
There is at present a certain amount of red tape over paying
Miss Pye, but I think this is accident, as I know Lena Ashwell
realizes that we have all achieved the impossible, she most of all.
Doubtless, we shall all look back upon the thing with pleasure,
but there have been moments when, even I, have felt over strung
before idiotic circumstances-Poor Miss Pye chanced each time
your unpleasant landladies, and I was burdened by a steamstress
procured by Miss Leverton whom we all imagined to be semi daft
and did not add always to the facilities of the work.

No evidence exists in the Tobin letters that Pye was ever
paid what she was owed by Ashwell or Ricketts. The costumes
were completed in early January, and it is clear that Ricketts
valued Pye's work immensely.
Prior to packing the production, Penelope Wheeler's own
costumes for Portia were sent to her home with Ricketts's instructions on how to wear them. (Ricketts's diary entries indicate
he usually sent costumes to the residences of leading ladies for
whom he designed.) In the letter that arrived with the costumes,
he remarks, "Let your looking glass be the best advisor and a
study of the drawings. I want the people to look aristocratic and
romantic and full of ardent life." Here he expresses his desires
for the union of performers and costumes. He instructs Wheeler
to try on the costume and then use the sketch to understand carriage, posture, and the emotional quality of the character.
n

Packing the show and troubleshooting the problems

In the second week of January 1918, the costumes were packed
into two large wicker baskets at Ashwell's residence. The baskets were shipped to Le Havre in two separate shipments one
week apart. Ricketts paid for the insurance himself and asked
Wheeler for reimbursement by check. He insured the ladies'
gowns for £500, citing that if they were lost, it would cost £500
to have Nathan's replace them (because of the labor-intensive
stenciling Ricketts had done free of charge). As the costumes

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were being loaded for shipping, he writes the last descriptions
of packing up and of Miss Pye:
Let us hope all will be well. I have found Miss Leverton very helpful,
sensible and enthusiastic. She has promised to help in the event
of accidents. Lena does not want her drawing room disarranged
(the packing takes place there) and Miss Pye is enjoying a sort
of nervous breakdown in the servant's house, Bolshevism having
spread from Potterton's to Limpsfield [where Lena Ashwell lived];
this is not entirely true, it is not Bolshevism yet, but non recovery
from X mas holidays and the Flue [sic] which is flourishing despite
the neglect of the press.

With the building over, it seems Pye collapsed from exhaustion, ill health, or both. Leverton may have accompanied
the costumes to Le Havre, for there would be no occasion,
other than in France, for her to help "with accidents."
Included in the letters to Wheeler are copious dressing
notes, some with drawings, and detailed instructions for alterations once the costumes reached Le Havre. The letters indicate
he had no intention of traveling to France himself. In some of
the last instructions to Wheeler he writes, "I don't think I have
anything to say that you won't find in formal letters or on the
new sketches, things will shape themselves when you have gotten the actors into their dresses." Trying on day was evidently
left to Wheeler and Leverton.
Among instructions for bow tying and jewelry wearing,
Ricketts explains problems with the construction. He gives advice for makeup and hairdressing, and he also tries to troubleshoot fitting problems. He indicates a few surprises; he sent
extra tights and extra green satin fabric for sashes, as well as a
costume for a supernumerary not yet cast: "I have included a
costume for a black page for Portia. I imagine you can steal or
borrow a French child for the purpose." Some of the costumes
did not turn out as he expected, and the designer includes
some solutions to problems:
Shylock's hat wants toning, the reds are too new, too sharp, they
want lowering in tone, dampening, twisting, they should look like
streaks of blood. Study drawing closely; the stenciling is good but
the whole thing looks too new and too baggy. I have only seen it
on Sturge Moore and clothes have to be worn, and worn properly.
The greens are too sharp, after doctoring the headdress and veil it
might be wise to put it on the roof in the rain.

Instructions were given about gait and general movements of the men and how their physicality should relate to
the costumes:
I want swagger and romance of the carriage of capes...see that
they swing their heads from their shoulders and their legs from
their hips... Regarding the other men, see that the waists are very
tight, the skirts projecting and the sashes falling at a point in the
front; not one of their sashes is good, none of the women have
understood a bow, they have made knobs.

Ricketts describes fitting problems he foresees with Jessica's

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