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| Men’s outfit, 1693 |
I got the idea that the Duke’s court was supposed to be outrageous and lewd (thus the late 17th century extravagance), and was willing to go along until Sylvia appeared. Sylvia is the fourth lover (paired with Valentine) but she lives at the court, and she was wearing sedate 18th century clothes. Then Proteus tries to impress at court, and shifts to a flambouyantly pink outfit, also 18th century. The two characters are not connected to each other, and at that point the whole design caused me pain.
My distress quickly elicited the response that I was a historian, and if I was going to apply historical reality to theatre, I shouldn’t attend. But I am not just a historian. I was two units from a degree in technical theatre, and spent many years in the field. I’ve been everything from sound board operator to production manager (of a Shakespeare festival, as it happens). I am not against artistic license!
Over the years I have had to become used to the adaptation of historical dress based on emotion or philosophical considerations rather than realism. We all know I have trouble with post-modernist emotionalism. But this didn’t even seem connected to the characters or their motivation. Even after a helpful conversation with a friend regarding the possibility that the young people were supposed to be “ahead of their time” or that the men were trying to find out what it meant to be men, or that all the lovers were experimenting, or even that the whole thing was really about the relationship between parents and children (as put forth in the program notes), I don’t buy it.
Play with history, by all means. Create art from its lessons, mores, and clothing. But please do it with a reason.
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