RSC AUCTIONS COSTUMES ONLINE TO SUPPORT STITCH IN TIME
Issued: Monday 9 April 2018
RSC AUCTIONS COSTUMES ONLINE TO SUPPORT STITCH IN TIME
Trousers worn by David Tennant, Ian McKellen’s floor length coat, doublet and hose worn by Judi Dench and Susannah York’s dress – all feature in eBay auction
The Royal Shakespeare Company (RSC) will auction 54 costume items to raise money for the Company’s Stitch In Time campaign, to support the restoration and redevelopment of its Costume Workshop. The online auction will take place over Shakespeare’s Birthday for a 10-day period between Tuesday 17 and Friday 27 April. The auction will go live at 8pm on Tuesday 17 and end at 8pm on Friday 27.
Costumes worn by actors including Simon Callow, Sinead Cusack, Judi Dench, Anita Dobson, Jane Lapotaire, Ian McKellen, Antony Sher, Patrick Stewart, David Tennant and Susannah York, will feature in the auction (see partial listing of auction items at the end of the release). The auction includes items which date back to productions in the 1970s, including:
- Simon Russell Beale’s waistcoat from Restoration (1988)
- David Tennant’s black dress trousers from Hamlet (2008)
- Anita Dobson’s grey blazer from The Merry Wives of Windsor (2012)
- Susannah York’s cream dress from Camino Real (1997)
- Patrick Stewart’s black trousers from The Merchant of Venice (2011)
- Judi Dench’s doublet and hose from Shakespeare Live! From The RSC (2016)
All costumes will be listed on eBay with costume measurements and a certificate of authenticity.
The RSC, a registered charity, makes thousands of costume items each year in its Stratford-upon-Avon based Costume Workshop. Once a production ends, most costumes are placed into the Company’s Costume Store and are available to hire. Some key items go into in the RSC’s Museum Collection and appear in exhibitions in the RSC’s theatres and around the world.
Stitch In Time is a £3m fundraising campaign and there is £1.8m left to raise towards the cost of restoring and redeveloping the Costume Workshop. Thousands of people from around the world have already supported the project including contributions from major philanthropists, trusts and foundations and businesses. The redevelopment will:
- Create improved facilities for costume making
- Care for the RSC’s heritage Grade II listed buildings, including the 1887 Scene Dock, which will become a new entrance to the RSC’s offices
- Create more space to enable new training and apprenticeship opportunities to secure the future of costume making in Stratford-upon-Avon
- Allow visitors to experience the Company’s world-class costume workshop for the first time through tours and online
David Tennant, RSC Board member and Associate Artist said,
“I have had the pleasure of wearing many costumes at the RSC, created in their workshop in Stratford-upon-Avon. I always think of the very first costume I had when I went there, which was Touchstone in As You Like It. I had this extraordinary, calf-length coat in the jesters’ motley. It was beautifully put together, and the amount of work that had gone into it took my breath away. The attention to detail, the sheer craftsmanship that is engrained in each costume impressed me then and continues to impress me at the company today.”
All bids for the auction need to be entered by the bidder independently via eBay. The RSC cannot facilitate bids for any individual.
For more information on the auction please visit rsc.org.uk/stitch-in-time-auction
For more information about Stitch In Time visit rsc.org.uk/stitch-in-time
For press images of selected costumes available in the auction, and of them in performance, please log on and sign in free of charge: images.rsc.org.uk/
ENDS
Notes to editors
A selection of auction items:
Shirt and trousers combination
Production: Henry IV Part I and II, 2014.
Actor: Sir Anthony Sher as Sir John Falstaff
Red military coat
Production: Henry V, 2015
Actor: Alex Hassell as Henry V
Cream waistcoat
Production: Restoration, 1988
Actor: Simon Russell Beale as Lord Are
Embroidered, white '"tapestry" skirt
Production: As You Like It, 1981
Actor: Sinead Cusack as Celia
White shirt
Production: Merry Wives: The Musical, 2006
Actor: Simon Callow, CBE as Sir John Falstaff
Brown velvet jacket
Production: The Merchant of Venice, 1979
Actor: John Nettles as Bassanio
Brown corduroy trousers
Production: Julius Caesar, 2001
Actor: Tim Pigott-Smith as Cassius
Short, grey blazer
Production: The Merry Wives of Windsor, 2012
Actor: Anita Dobson as Mistress Quickly
Black dress trousers
Production: Hamlet, 2008
Actor: David Tennant as Hamlet
Beige suede shorts
Production: Antony and Cleopatra, 2006
Actor: Sir Patrick Stewart as Antony
Blue military brocade coat and hat
Production: Love's Labour's Lost, 2008
Actor: David Tennant as Berowne Cossack
Black doublet and hose with ruff
Production: Shakespeare Live! From The RSC, 2016
Actor: Dame Judi Dench as Hamlet the Dame
Red floor length coat
Production: King Lear, 2007
Actor: Sir Ian McKellen as King Lear
Blue jacket and skirt
Production: Ghosts, 1993
Actor: Jane Lapotaire as Mrs Alving
White tunic
Production: Richard II, 2013
Actor: David Tennant as Richard II
White striped shirt and top hat
Production: The Seagull, 2007
Actor: Sir Ian McKellen as Sorin
Black donkey jacket
Production: Shakespeare Live! From The RSC, 2016
Actor: Al Murray as Bottom
Cream dress
Production: Camino Real, 1997
Actor: Susannah York as Marguerite Gautier
Black Trousers
Production: The Merchant of Venice, 2011
Actor: Patrick Stewart as Shylock
The RSC Acting Companies are generously supported by THE GATSBY CHARITABLE FOUNDATION and THE KOVNER FOUNDATION
The work of the RSC Literary Department is generously supported by THE DRUE HEINZ TRUST
The restoration and redevelopment of the Costume Workshop is supported using public funding by the National Lottery through Arts Council England, with additional support from the Garfield Weston Foundation, Lydia and Manfred Gorvy, The Foyle Foundation, The Bernard Sunley Charitable Foundation and other generous supporters
COATS Official Thread Supplier to the RSC
RSC Costume Workshop
The RSC has the largest in-house costume-making department of any British theatre, and the only on-site armoury, where breastplates, fake weapons, belts and gauntlets are made. Other specialist skills and activities include men’s and ladies’ costume construction, millinery, dyeing and printing. The stock room and workshops contain fabrics, braids, buttons, bows and sequins which help to make the hundreds of costumes created each year. The workshop also includes facilities for fitting actors into their costumes, and ensuring their maintenance during the long life of a show, sometimes through years of performances. This makes the workshops proximity to the theatres essential.
About the RSC
The Royal Shakespeare Company creates theatre at its best, made in Stratford-upon-Avon and shared around the world. We produce an inspirational artistic programme each year, setting Shakespeare in context, alongside the work of his contemporaries and today’s writers.
Everyone at the RSC - from actors to armourers, musicians to technicians - plays a part in creating the world you see on stage. All our productions begin life at our Stratford workshops and theatres and we bring them to the widest possible audience through our touring, residencies, live broadcasts and online activity. So, wherever you experience the RSC, you experience work made in Shakespeare’s home town.
We have trained generations of the very best theatre makers and we continue to nurture the talent of the future. We encourage everyone to enjoy a lifelong relationship with Shakespeare and live theatre. We reach 530,000 children and young people annually through our education work, transforming their experiences in the classroom, in performance and online. Registered charity no. 212481 www.rsc.org.uk.