{"meta":{"version":"2.1","_links":{"self":{"href":"https://api.vam.ac.uk/v2/object/O1625483"},"collection_page":{"href":"https://collections.vam.ac.uk/item/O1625483/"}},"images":{"_primary_thumbnail":"https://framemark.vam.ac.uk/collections/2025PB5807/full/!100,100/0/default.jpg","_iiif_image":"https://framemark.vam.ac.uk/collections/2025PB5807/","_alt_iiif_image":[],"imageResolution":"low","_images_meta":[{"assetRef":"2025PB5807","copyright":"© Victoria and Albert Museum, London","sensitiveImage":false},{"assetRef":"2023NJ0780","copyright":"© Victoria and Albert Museum, London","sensitiveImage":false}]},"see_also":null},"record":{"systemNumber":"O1625483","accessionNumber":"S.739-2021","objectType":"Costume design","titles":[{"title":"The Pirates of Penzance","type":"generic title"}],"summaryDescription":"Design by Lez Brotherston for Frederic in Act 1 of <i>The Pirates of Penzance, or, the Slave of Duty</i> by W.S. Gilbert and Arthur Sullivan.\n\nLez Brotherston OBE (born 1961) is an influential and innovative British set and costume designer who trained at the Central School of Art and Design. Brotherston started his career designing for the film <i>Letter to Brezhnev</i> (1985) and has worked extensively across dance, theatre, opera, musical theatre and film. He is best known for his collaborations with choreographer Matthew Bourne and Bourne’s dance companies Adventures in Motion Pictures and New Adventures, where he is an Associate Artist. Their ground-breaking <i>Swan Lake</i> (1995) with male swans has received over 30 international awards to date, including a Tony Award for Best Costume Design. In 1998 Brotherston received the Olivier Award’s Outstanding Achievement in Dance for Matthew Bourne’s <i>Cinderella</i> that was set during the Blitz. In 2005 Brotherston designed, co-wrote and co-directed <i>Les Liaisons Dangereuses</i> with Adam Cooper and has designed sets and costume for many national companies including the Royal National Theatre, Scottish Ballet, English National Opera and the Royal Shakespeare Company. Brotherston received the Ninette de Valois Award for Outstanding Contribution to Dance in 20, Fred18 and has worked extensively  throughout the UK with companies Kneehigh, Shakespeare’s Globe, Sheffield Crucible, Almeida Theatre, Northern Ballet, Theatre Royal Stratford East, Old  Vic, Glyndebourne and Chichester Festival Theatre. He has also designed  numerous productions for the West End including <i>Long Day’s Journey into Night</i>, <i>The Rise and Fall of Little Voice</i>, <i>Sister Act</i> and <i>Oh What a Lovely War</i>. In 2022 Brotherston was awarded an OBE for services to Dance and Theatre. \n\nThis design for Frederic, the 'Slave of Duty' in <i>The Pirates of Penzance</i>, may never have been realised, though it was intended for a production by director and choreographer, Jerry Mitchell, whose name appears in a pencil annotation. Frederic was apprenticed by his nursemaid Ruth to a band of pirates, after Ruth misheard the instructions that he should be apprenticed to a ship's pilot. In Act 1 Frederic is mortified to appear before a group of beautiful ladies, the daughters of Major General Stanley, in what he calls 'this alarming costume'. The original production of Gilbert and Sullivan's comic opera opened at the Fifth Avenue Theatre in New York on 31 December 1879 when the D'Oyly Carte Opera Company was on tour in the USA.  ","physicalDescription":"Costume design by Lez Brotherston for Frederic as a pirate in <i>The Pirates of Penzance</i>. Full length male figure, looking to viewer's left. He wears a close-fitting sleeved vest, designed to suggest tattooed arms, under a sleeveless vest which gives the impression of a bare chest and nipples adorned with gold rings. He has baggy Regency-style, aubergine-coloured fly-front breeches, fastened with four gold buttons and gathered at the knee with red ribbon, gold hoop earrings and brown bucket top boots, and equipped with a cutlass tucked into his belt and a sword at his back. There is a skull and crossed cutlass motif in black ink in the lower right corner, covering Frederic's left boot. The title of the comic opera and the name of the director, 'Pirates of Penzance - Jerry Mitchell', are inscribed in pencil, running vertically down the left edge from top to bottom. All edges of the design are painted in a ragged black pattern to create a frame.\n","artistMakerPerson":[{"name":{"text":"Brotherston, Lez","id":"A6676"},"association":{"text":"costume designers","id":"AAT163428"},"note":""}],"artistMakerOrganisations":[],"artistMakerPeople":[],"materials":[],"techniques":[{"text":"painting (image-making)","id":"AAT54216"},{"text":"drawing (image-making)","id":"AAT54196"}],"materialsAndTechniques":"Watercolour, ink and pencil on paper","categories":[{"text":"Entertainment & Leisure","id":"THES48959"},{"text":"Designs","id":"THES48968"},{"text":"Musical Theatre","id":"THES278879"},{"text":"Opera","id":"THES263971"}],"styles":[],"collectionCode":{"text":"T&P","id":"THES48602"},"images":["2025PB5807","2023NJ0780"],"imageResolution":"low","galleryLocations":[{"current":{"text":"TRANS5","id":"THES250499"},"free":"","case":"","shelf":"","box":""}],"partTypes":[[{"text":"costume design","id":"AAT163423"}]],"contentWarnings":[{"apprise":"No","note":""}],"placesOfOrigin":[{"place":{"text":"Great Britain","id":"x32019"},"association":{"text":"designed","id":"x29338"},"note":""}],"productionDates":[{"date":{"text":"ca. 2015","earliest":"2010-01-01","latest":"2019-12-31"},"association":{"text":"designed","id":"x29338"},"note":""}],"associatedObjects":[],"creditLine":"Given by the designer","dimensions":[{"dimension":"Height","value":"42.0","unit":"cm","qualifier":"","date":{"text":"","earliest":null,"latest":null},"part":"","note":""},{"dimension":"Width","value":"29.7","unit":"cm","qualifier":"","date":{"text":"","earliest":null,"latest":null},"part":"","note":""}],"dimensionsNote":"","marksAndInscriptions":[],"objectHistory":"","historicalContext":"","briefDescription":"Design by Lez Brotherston for Frederic in Act 1 of <i>The Pirates of Penzance, or, the Slave of Duty</i> by W.S. Gilbert and Arthur Sullivan.","bibliographicReferences":[],"production":"","productionType":{"text":"","id":""},"contentDescription":"","contentPlaces":[],"associatedPlaces":[],"contentPerson":[],"associatedPerson":[],"contentOrganisations":[],"associatedOrganisations":[],"contentPeople":[],"associatedPeople":[],"contentEvents":[],"associatedEvents":[],"contentOthers":[],"contentConcepts":[],"contentLiteraryRefs":[],"galleryLabels":[],"partNumbers":["S.739-2021"],"accessionNumberNum":"739","accessionNumberPrefix":"S","accessionYear":2021,"otherNumbers":[],"copyNumber":"","aspects":["WHOLE"],"assets":[],"recordModificationDate":"2026-03-02","recordCreationDate":"2021-05-21","availableToBook":false}}