For my drama AS Level you get the choice to perform, do lighting, sound or costumes and of course I chose costumes and thought you might like to see them. The play we chose is called Matilda Liar. The rough outline is that Matilda tells lies and then takes a truth pill that she thinks is a slimming pill and gets into trouble with her family for bringing to the front all the truths that they don't want to face. The play ends with the start of act 2 again, with Matilda appearing without her tongue, preventing all of the horrors that happened previously.
We had to choose a practitioner to base our work on. Our group chose Berkoff, who uses very exaggerated and un-naturalistic movements in his plays. His style had to be conveyed through the costumes as well as the cautionary tale style of the play.
I'll start with Jordan's costume. He played the father who was the head of the family with all of the authority. He is quite a ridiculous character which I chose to enhance with a massive tie made in a disgusting fabric. This tie is the only coloured item, the rest of the costumes a monochromatic, which was a key feature of Berkoff's work. This demonstrated his superiority within the group as if only he was allowed to break the rules. I also gave him a hunch by stuffing a small pillow up his blazer to give him a slightly weird silhouette.
This is Beth, who played the main character Matilda. This was her "lies" dress, worn at the beginning and ripped off to reveal a white dress when she learns that she's taken a truth drug. I used the
Kitschy Coo Lady Skater dress pattern for both dresses, modifying the black one to have a buttonband down the centre front. . The neckline doesn't match up because I wanted an aspect of every costume to be not quite right, representing the family who seems okay at the start but falls apart as the truth starts being told.
The buttons are decorative because the dress is attached with velcro which made a great ripping sound when Matilda ripped it off in a fit of rage.
Katie played the mother, a very aggressive character, who is imprisoned within the family, a slave to housework and so on. This is why I chose black and grey stripes because they remind me of prison uniforms. As you can see the stripes are completely off here, to add the element of something that isn't quite right.
I used the Lady Skater pattern for this dress as well, but had to hugely shorten the waist. It could do with a bit more shortening actually. I made it very loose to make it look ill-fitting and dowdy.To enhance katies silhouette I padded her bum using an old pillowcase and stuffing. There was originally padding in the boob area but it was taken out because we decided that there was enough in that area already.
And we put a spoon in her hair, because, just because...
And that's all of my costumes!
I was very lucky to work with an amazingly talented group of people, who all looked amazing in their costumes. I can't wait to do this as a job!
Thanks so much for reading and to Katie for her amazing facial expressions and pictures!
Lauren xx
