The devil’s in the details

Costume designer Christina Lovery creates a distorted reality in The Rake’s Progress.

“I’m not at all afraid of colour,” says Christina Lovery. That is clearly obvious to all those familiar with Lovery’s work. The costume designer has a number of colourful theatre projects to her name, such as Charlie and the Chocolate Factory at Det Norske Teatret and Alice in Wonderland at the Norwegian National Theatre. “It’s hard to say what exactly characterises me as a designer, but people say they often recognise the lines”.

She’s now at the Oslo Opera House putting the finishing touches on her work before the premiere of The Rake’s Progress. Her list of accomplishments in theatre, film and TV is long, but this is the first time that Lovery’s costume design can be seen on Norway’s largest opera stage. “When I earned my master’s from the Oslo National Academy of the Arts it was in opera costume design, so there was no doubt that I would love to work at the Oslo Opera House. I’ve also worked together with several of the members of the artistic team in the past, which makes a difference.”

A distorted visual world

Igor Stravinsky wrote the opera The Rake’s Progress based on eight satirical paintings and etchings by William Hogarth depicting the downward spiral of a man who inherits a large fortune that he loses through gambling and carousing, ending his days at a mental hospital. The word rake – i.e. libertine – is an older term used about a person, usually male, who lives a hedonistic, unrestrained and debauched life.

Hogarth’s paintings and Stravinsky’s opera have moralistic overtones when it comes to self-indulgence and choosing the easiest path in life. But in director Vidar Magnussen’s version, a different perspective is put forward: “It’s important for us to focus on the fact that this man is sick, rather than just a man who makes the wrong choices in life,” says Lovery.

“Whereas Hogarth’s paintings focus on morality, this version focuses on the love of a person who is ill,” she continues.

The entire story is told from inside a mental hospital through Tom’s perspective and the journey that takes place inside his head. “It is Tom’s visions we see, which is why everything is fragmented and all mixed up. The people he encounters along the way are distorted versions of the people at the asylum. So, this sets the foundation for the entire costume design process,” explains Lovery. “The visual expression is inspired by washing rituals in 1950s asylums. We wanted it to be a modern-day version, but without a specific timeframe. It can be any time from 1950 to today, but is recognisably modern.”

Eternal duplication

The distorted reality and perception that Tom’s illness is worsening are created by various aspects of both the costume design and set design. Elements and details are repeated and the different individuals and places run together and blur into each other.

The story is propelled forward by Nick Shadow, who appears out of nowhere with the offer of a convenient money inheritance, which appears to solve all of Tom’s problems. He lures Tom into a pact with the devil and starts showing up everywhere. Nick Shadow is the devil on Tom’s shoulder. The more things take a turn for the worse, the sicker Tom becomes and the more he sees the devil everywhere.

Lovery designed Nick Shadow’s costume in four stages to visually reflect how the character develops: “At first, he is a bit of an eccentric in a yellow suit with red hair, and then gradually becomes more and more devilish. His hair develops into horns as Tom slips deeper and deeper into his illness.”

The same red hair also shows up on other patients in the mental hospital. The devil’s shirt collar is also seen in the costumes of the ‘Respectable Citizens’, who are a distorted version of the nurses – performed by the entire opera chorus. Dressed in yellow suits with bulky shapes in silhouette (recognisable from other Lovery designs), they serve to dramatize Tom’s hallucinations: “The idea behind this is that they are not only individuals, but also visually depict images as a group. The women’s arm fits into the men’s arm, so that when they are approaching, there are both individuals and a large mass. It is a sort of duplication of the devil, an eternal duplication that just keeps going and going.”

Struggle between good and evil

Whereas Nick Shadow is the embodiment of the evil force that pulls Tom in the wrong direction, we find his counterpart in Anne Trulove – Tom’s eternally faithful fiancée, who tries to save him and help him get better. This contrast between good and evil is expressed in contrasts between the different materials comprising the character’s costumes: natural and genuine versus synthetic. “In both the set design and costumes, nature plays a role as the pure and genuine, representing genuine love that can save Tom,” says Lovery.

Anne Trulove – the embodiment of goodness – wears dresses made of natural materials and with floral appliques. Nick Shadow’s final costume, reflecting the consummate stage of devilry, is made of black, woven plastic, hand-sewn in shapes that make the material look like muscle fibre or tendons. The material is designed to reflect and shine in the light. Lovery explains that this is one of her favourite details from the project. Lovery adds: “I just love how the lines are sewn by hand. I’ve worked with this material before, so I have high expectations as to how it will look in the stage lights. It will be very exciting to see on stage.”

Visual character development

Like Nick Shadow, several of the other characters’ costumes evolve along with the story. Anne Trulove’s dresses become increasingly darker as she loses the fight against the delusions that have taken hold on Tom’s mind. And Baba, the bearded lady and travelling circus performer, deteriorates visually as she progresses from being hopeful and ready for love to broke and despondent after having been used by Tom.

“Baba exemplifies the vulnerable outsider and the recognisable desire to fit in,” describes Lovery. “We first see her in an oversized jacket shaped like a heart that symbolises the love she hopes to find.” Baba marries Tom, he uses her, they lose everything they own and end up on the street, and we see this progressive deterioration in her costumes. In this interpretation, she is also Tom’s nurse, whom he sees in a twisted way, a man who in Tom’s head is a woman he marries.

Ambiguous syphilis

As much as Lovery uses contrasts to highlight differences, she also toys with ambiguity and seemingly contradictory elements in one and the same costume. For the brothel madame Mother Goose – named after a euphemism for syphilis during Hogarth’s time – Lovery designed a beautiful dress in hand-painted silk that accentuates her womanly curves. A hand extends up the back and there is a tongue with beads and sequins on the stomach area.

“The dress is designed to be alluring and seductive, yet disturbing. You might say that the beads spreading up over the tongue represent syphilis and venereal disease, but not explicitly. I like to incorporate ambiguity, the blurred line between what is attractive and what is dangerous. You know you should keep a distance, but dive in headfirst anyway.”

That same ambiguity is found throughout the entire opera, which fluctuates between utterly tragic and thoroughly comic through the musical and scenic details. It’s all a game – but a dangerous one.

Written by Ellinor Rundhovde.