{"meta":{"version":"2.1","_links":{"self":{"href":"https://api.vam.ac.uk/v2/object/O1625532"},"collection_page":{"href":"https://collections.vam.ac.uk/item/O1625532/"}},"images":{"_primary_thumbnail":"https://framemark.vam.ac.uk/collections/2023NJ6585/full/!100,100/0/default.jpg","_iiif_image":"https://framemark.vam.ac.uk/collections/2023NJ6585/","_alt_iiif_image":[],"imageResolution":"low","_images_meta":[{"assetRef":"2023NJ6585","copyright":"© Victoria and Albert Museum, London","sensitiveImage":false}]},"see_also":null},"record":{"systemNumber":"O1625532","accessionNumber":"S.788-2021","objectType":"Costume design","titles":[{"title":"Hamlet","type":"generic title"}],"summaryDescription":"Design by Lez Brotherston for the Player Queen in <i>Hamlet</i>, choreographed by David Deane for Shanghai Ballet, 2016.\r\n\r\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>, which 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 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 2018 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\n<i>Hamlet</i> was created for Shanghai Ballet in 2016 to mark the 400th anniversary of Shakespeare's death. ","physicalDescription":"Costume design by Lez Brotherston for the Player Queen in <i>Hamlet</i>. Full length androgynous figure, looking to viewer's left. The Queen wears a floor-length Elizabethan-style dress in gold and black with an attached grey ruff at the back of the neckline, the black skirt decorated all over with gold spots and with a shorter overlay of gold net, the black and gold bodice trimmed with a red band decorated in gold, the 'puff' upper sleeves in orange with bands of black patterned in gold, the tight-fitting lower sleeves in black trimmed with gold and with trailing red laces. The skirt is open at the front, revealing a deep red lining. Under the skirt the Queen wears red knee-breeches. She has a spiked gold crown. Her hands are red. She stands in front of a roughly drawn black ink 'frame' with, below the frame, the ballet title in black lettering, partly obscured by the figure's feet and skirt. To upper left, within the frame on an attached strip of paper, is printed 'Player Queen', running up the paper from bottom to top. With pencil annotation, 'Shanghai Ballet', within the frame, upper right, similarly running up the paper from bottom to top. The design is drawn on a page from an art sketchbook, with holes from the spiral binding at top. The edges of the page are painted in a ragged black pattern to create a frame.","artistMakerPerson":[{"name":{"text":"Brotherston, Lez","id":"A6676"},"association":{"text":"costume designers","id":"AAT163428"},"note":""}],"artistMakerOrganisations":[],"artistMakerPeople":[],"materials":[{"text":"watercolour","id":"x33202"},{"text":"ink","id":"AAT15012"},{"text":"pencil","id":"x30347"},{"text":"paper","id":"x30308"}],"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":"Dance","id":"THES252984"},{"text":"Shakespeare","id":"THES253244"}],"styles":[],"collectionCode":{"text":"T&P","id":"THES48602"},"images":["2023NJ6585"],"imageResolution":"low","galleryLocations":[{"current":{"text":"003","id":"THES402711"},"free":"","case":"","shelf":"","box":""}],"partTypes":[[{"text":"costume designs","id":""}],[{"text":"theatre designs","id":""}]],"contentWarnings":[{"apprise":"","note":""}],"placesOfOrigin":[{"place":{"text":"Great Britain","id":"x32019"},"association":{"text":"designed","id":"x29338"},"note":""}],"productionDates":[{"date":{"text":"2016","earliest":"2016-01-01","latest":"2016-12-31"},"association":{"text":"designed","id":"x29338"},"note":""}],"associatedObjects":[],"creditLine":"Given by the designer","dimensions":[{"dimension":"Height","value":"40.5","unit":"cm","qualifier":"","date":{"text":"","earliest":null,"latest":null},"part":"","note":""},{"dimension":"Width","value":"30.5","unit":"cm","qualifier":"","date":{"text":"","earliest":null,"latest":null},"part":"","note":""}],"dimensionsNote":"","marksAndInscriptions":[],"objectHistory":"","historicalContext":"","briefDescription":"Design by Lez Brotherston for the Player Queen in <i>Hamlet</i>, choreographed by David Deane for Shanghai Ballet, 2016","bibliographicReferences":[],"production":"","productionType":{"text":"","id":""},"contentDescription":"","contentPlaces":[],"associatedPlaces":[],"contentPerson":[],"associatedPerson":[],"contentOrganisations":[],"associatedOrganisations":[],"contentPeople":[],"associatedPeople":[],"contentEvents":[],"associatedEvents":[],"contentOthers":[],"contentConcepts":[],"contentLiteraryRefs":[],"galleryLabels":[],"partNumbers":["S.788-2021"],"accessionNumberNum":"788","accessionNumberPrefix":"S","accessionYear":2021,"otherNumbers":[],"copyNumber":"","aspects":["WHOLE"],"assets":[],"recordModificationDate":"2026-01-26","recordCreationDate":"2021-05-21","availableToBook":false}}