We are not going to talk about how I will no longer be in this beautiful city in a few days, okay? Instead, let us focus our attention on today’s blog prompt and location. We visited the Victoria and Albert Museum. We were supposed to go through the theatre exhibit, but it was closed. However, we were incredibly brave and kept going along. You should be proud of us! Our task at hand was to find an artifact and relate it back to a play and/or show we have seen. This could be as loose as we wanted, so tighten your corset and let’s get started.
When I walked into the fashion exhibit, I noticed this absolutely stunnin’ dress and I immediately thought of Beatrice in Much Ado About Nothing. The main color is an off-white cream and there are floral designs that are blue, red, and brown all over the dress. The floral designed are printed onto the dress according to the information plaque. I got to see Shakespeare’s Globe and their costume design with the characters, which was incredible. While this looks nothing that would have been in the play if it was set in the original setting, which was during the Italian Wars (1494-1559), the colors and earthy feel reminded me of Beatrice specifically.
Let’s say that this could be used as a costume piece for Beatrice in a production of Much Ado About Nothing. The dress was estimated of being created between 1760-1769 but the sleeves were altered 10 years after it was originally created. This would mean that it would be worn in the late 1770s or early 1780s. In order to change the time period yet still have the historical context of the Italian Wars loosely mentioned in the show, I figured setting the play during the end of the 4th Anglo-Dutch War from 1780-1783 would make sense. Is this idea a little over the top? Maybe, but I wanted to make sure that the context made some sort of sense and was somewhat accurate, even if that would be debatable.
Well. We leave London in less than 24 hours and head off to Stratford-upon-Avon to finish up our study abroad trip. This is all so bittersweet…
See you soon.
Theatre in London U of A 