Theatre Design & Technology - Winter 2013 - 23

show. It is too red. Sew jewel to chest below blue patch. He wears
sprig of pearls as well. Powder over makeup. He should be grey of
skin, carriage of head and shoulders superb.

costumes. He explains the finished costumes are not producing
the right effects:
Jessica's oriental dress seemed bunchy and baggy in rehearsal,
it is the design I like best, but so far, the materials have proven
recalcitrant and it must be reshaped on the wearer...see that
Jessica looks strange and ambiguous till she gets into Christian
clothes to escape from tall coifs, face bandages and sleeves hiding
her hands...

Wheeler received similar notes about fitting adjustments
and hair for Portia:
I want Portia's white dress to be slipping off the shoulders, the
stomacher low and the green veil has two wing like strips to
give line, and to cover back of corsage... If too bunchy on the
hips (I want it wide there but also I want a waist) could not the
gathered folds of the underdress be put into a false piece lower
down and so leave the waist free, but perhaps it is allright.... The
text speaks of 'the golden Portia' and she is usually given golden
hair in consequence, but unless you wish to wear a yellow wig,
I should prefer your own hair. I admit I had yellow hair in view,
in designing the dresses, but dark hair is safe; possibly the dark
red hair might look well on you and not dislike your eyes and
eyebrows, should you find it does, use it, but wigs are troublesome
things though actors like them.

Ricketts was very concerned about the lengths of the dresses, skirts, and cloaks because of the borders of hand painted
stenciling. He gave instructions for shortening all the garments
from the shoulders or the waists to keep the stenciling proportioned and visible. Because he was worried about the placement
of the headdresses, tiaras, and crowns, he instructed that they
should all be worn low on the brow and not high on the head,
"See that they wear their hats, turbans, etc. well over the brow,
this is an art, all britishers [sic] show too much forehead, just
as the common man loves a heft of his hair in the front." The
hard headdresses, made of cardboard and covered in fabric, had
painted details. Before the turbans were packed in the wicker
baskets, their feathers were detached; drawings and instructions
were included for setting the feathers before performances.
Some of the dresses and capes were designed with casings
for cane so that portions of the costumes distended outward
from the actors' bodies. The cane was left out of the costumes
for transport, and instructions were sent to place the cane in
the proper places. Ricketts describes the desired effects of costumes and makeup for the Doge and the Prince of Morocco:
Doge: Put cane in the cape to make it project, possibly waist and top
of sleeves too large. See that the skirt does not open in the front and
show white tights. I want sleeves enormous, but possibly they want
reducing at the top... Red gloves, emerald ring. I want him to look
very white, superb and Christian like a white cardinal...[see fig. 3].
Prince of Morocco: Cape may want cane to make it project. Turban
(made by me) may be small round the head, if so slit it at the back
behind the veil, Fasten cloak to shoulders as I do not want lining to

Wheeler, quoted in the Manchester Guardian (9/10/1918),
said, "The great difficulty of course is arranging for transport of
properties, but Mr. Ricketts is designing some wonderful and ingenious portable costumes." Ricketts sent all the sketches with
the costumes and begged Wheeler to protect them so that he
could have them back. He believed the performers needed every
drawing as a guide for dressing.
n

Touring to the troops

The work of Ashwell and Wheeler's touring company is documented in newspaper and magazine articles. Wheeler stated in
an interview with the Manchester Guardian that the soldiers
craved classical stories of morality and tragedy and that they
also longed for the poetry of Shakespeare and Sophocles. The
magazine Lady's Pictorial published Wheeler's account of
touring at the front with Ashwell's company in 1915. The company members stayed in hotels and then traveled with their
sets, props, and costumes in a truck. Doctors, nurses, and
the French and English wounded soldiers were waiting in the
hospitals, which varied from converted grand buildings and
residences to canvas tents. Makeshift stages were erected using
petrol cans, boards, and blankets. The actors also served as the
stage crew. Soldiers or hospital personnel were cast in male
roles and as supernumeraries when actors were not available.
Wheeler's account states that every performance was packed
and that soldiers stood outside the crowded buildings and tents
to hear the plays if they could not get in. In that tour, the company performed fifty-one plays in thirteen days to about 15,000
people (Wheeler 1915, 692).
Ricketts never saw the final results of his time-consuming
toil which yielded no recognition in the London theatre scene
and for which he received little or no financial compensation.
He often stated, "I died during the war" (Lewis 1939, preface).
The Tobin letters indicate the opposite: that he was very much
alive in his projects and that he had deep emotional sensitivities
to people and events around him. Yet in the war-ridden landscape
of stress and uncertainty, and in the financial and emotional stability of Charles Shannon, he kept many projects afloat while he
delivered Wheeler's costumes and sets almost on deadline.
His letters indicate he felt his Victorian way of life was crumbling around him. He feared the passing of the civilized world, a
world in which he saw himself an archaic champion of expressions of classical beauty for the pursuit of universal truths. The
modern postimpressionist movement threatened to destroy his
ideal artistic perceptions just as the German Zeppelins threatened
to destroy irreplaceable works of art and architecture. In a letter
to R. N. R. Holst dated January 1916, Ricketts wrote, "My dear
Friend, the world at the end of this war, will be in for a strange
period of reaction and hostility to all finer things, that is, the older, baser people in whose hands things are. The only hope is in
the younger generation which is in the thick of it" (Lewis 1939,

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Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Theatre Design & Technology - Winter 2013