Archive volunteers and individuals from the TRCH’s people’s theatre group came together to co-curate this display. TRCH is an RSC theatre partner, working with us for over 9 years in Nottingham. 2025 marked the 160th anniversary of the Theatre Royal and the launch of a new project Shakespeare and Me. Having not known each other previously, the group found connection in their shared knowledge and celebration of their city.

Parts of Shakespeare’s As You Like It portrays an upper-class society where strict rules apply. Duke Ferdinand takes control of the court, banishing his brother and his brother’s daughter Rosalind to ensure power. At court the Duke is attended to by Lords, reimagined in 1977 as early seventeenth century gentlemen.

Co-creators from TRCH saw a connection between the costumes and the Nottingham lace trade. They challenged the traditional link between the material and wealth explaining 

SYC is a charity whose mission is to ensure Stratford-upon-Avon is a safe place for young people, where they can find community, activities and support to enable them to flourish and invest in their future and that of the town. They are one of many organisations the theatre works with to support the local Stratford-upon-Avon community.

In his greatest tragedy, Hamlet, Shakespeare sends nine characters to a destructive end. Ophelia, Hamlet’s lover, is overcome with grief and drowns in a river. Two versions of this costume were made, one pristine, and the other made to look dirty.

One Stratford co-creator chose this dress as it reflected ‘something they would wear to their prom’.