Weaving a historical narrative through clothing
If clothes can be said to make the man, VideoCabaret’s production of The Great War, currently on stage at the Soulpepper Theatre, reveals costume design as central to the art of storytelling.
“Wardrobe is often looked down upon by directors, who tend to focus more on, say, sets,” says costume designer Astrid Janson, who has worked with Hollingsworth to develop the unique visual style of Video Cabaret’s productions since its early days at the Cameron House back in the ’80s. “But here, because we do everything in a black box, you are really telling a story through clothes.”
If you are one of the few who is as yet unfamiliar with the style of VideoCabaret, this production, as with all the other instalments of Michael Hollingsworth’s epic, blackhumoured chronicle The History of the Village of Small Huts, takes place in a pitch black theatre behind a scrim; all the parts are played by a handful of actors (here, seven playing some 50 roles) all of whom are in exaggerated whiteface; and all of whom have only 30 seconds offstage to change their costumes before appearing again as someone else.
“Sometimes all the audience has to go on to figure out what’s happening is through what the actors onstage are wearing,” says Janson. “So we have to give them a lot of signs and visual cues.”
To that end, Janson goes big and bold. The British soldiers are blinged out in varying hues of olive satin, accessorized with Brillo pad epaulettes and Union Jacks, the Germans are in scary metallic greys and beer hall braid tiaras, while the French work a fleur-de-lys.
To facilitate the quick changes that take place between scenes in total darkness, everything from the sartorial layers of a tie, shirt, waistcoat and jacket of a statesman to the bosomy bustles of a ladies’ gown, complete with its jewels and accessories is cleverly constructed as one piece that attaches with Velcro.
Janson is a veteran of Stratford and the Shaw Festival who has designed wardrobes for everything from live theatre and opera to dance and television, But it’s in her work for VideoCabaret that Janson really gets to cut loose, combing dollar stores and Canadian Tire for interesting bits and bobs she can reimagine as turn-of the-century dress or military regalia — the exaggerated reality version.
“If it’s cheap and light and we can glue gun it, I just toss it in my cart because I know we’ll find a use for it,” says Janson, who takes this found art approach not just as a cost-cutting measure, but because “the intention is to make it as rough and unrealistic as possible.”
Hence the “fruit salad” on Janson’s military amusingly fashioned from a plastic cornucopia, or the Germans’ “pickle hats” made from a child’s Nerf gun stuck on a plastic salad bowl. In a nod to the theatre’s beer hall origins, all the soldiers’ jackets button up with beer caps — inventive details clearly visible to the audience in the intimate theatre that further the show’s pointed humour and broad cabaret style.
Says Janson: “I was doing steampunk before they had a word for it.” Karen von Hahn is a Toronto-based writer, trend observer and style commentator. Contact her at kvh@karenvonhahn.com.