Description

An illustrated talk by Catherine Leonard on the collection of Victorian costume donated to the RSC by the actor and designer Tom Heslewood. The collection covers the second half of the nineteenth century and represents some of the great Shakespearean actors of the age, most notably Sir Henry Irving, but also the Bensons, Charles Fechter, Samuel Phelps and H.B. Irving. This extraordinarily rich archive spans 35 years of Irving’s career, from Two Roses in 1870 to the night of his death in 1905. Stage costumes are a tangible witness to the craft of a great actor, which can now only be experienced through contemporary reports or pictures. In this talk we will be looking at costumes from some of Irving’s great performances: Lear, Hamlet, Mephistopheles among others, as well as some spectacular costumes from the wardrobe of Constance Benson. Catherine Leonard received an MA in Museum Studies: History of Textiles & Dress from the University of Southampton in 2008. She has been working on the Royal Shakespeare Company collection of Victorian theatrical costume since 2007, when it was on loan to the Museum of London. She is at present a Collections Assistant at the Hampshire Museum Services at Winchester.

How to book

To book a place, telephone 020 7641 5250 or email: [email protected]