Studio: international art (77.1919)

THE ART OF THE THEATRE

COSTUME DESIGNED BY
C. LOVAT FRASER FOR
FIRST FOREST LORD IN
“AS YOU LIKE IT"

THE ART OF THE {THEATRE—MR.
C. LOVAT FRASER'S DESIGNS FOR
“ AS YOU LIKE IT ” 0 a 0

MR. NIGEL PLAYFAIR, that manager
of remarkable ability and foresight,
announces that he will shortly bring
his recent Stratford - on - Avon produc-
tion of “ As You Like It ” to London.
This promise is of especial importance
as it will show at its very best the
work of an artist whose name is bound
to become prominent as a designer and
colourist in the future history of the
theatre. For the mounting of his produc-
tion he went to Mr. C. Lovat Fraser, to
whom he gave a perfectly free hand. This
artist designed and personally executed the
entire setting and all the costumes of the
play, and has come in for a certain amount
of abuse for having forsaken historical truth
and accuracy. He has been accused of
having adopted a jumble of styles, and

chosen a pack of cards, a mediaeval missal
or piece of tapestry, and one or two modern
paintings as the basis of his designs. The
old puritanical point of view seems still
to survive with regard to Shakespearean
productions. 0000a
In “ As You Like It ” Mr. C. Lovat
Fraser has in a large measure returned
to Shakespearean simplicity of stage. But
besides being of great practical economy,
his designs are of surpassing decorative
beauty. Although possessing a wide ac-
quaintance with historical detail he is not
governed by rule and tradition. He does
not fall into the fatal error of a realism
which hampers rather than helps Shake-
speare, but preserves the spirit and feeling
of the gaiety, freshness, and fantasy of the
fifteenth-century missal page and illu-
minated manuscript, to which, he frankly
admits, he had recourse in setting the
production as the two best sources open
to him. By treating the masses of lines

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