I designed costumes for Lillian Hellman's The Autumn Garden at Eclipse Theatre which runs November 15 through December 21. The Autumn Garden is known as Lillian Hellman's masterpiece, and her most mature drama.
The Autumn Garden takes place in a small Gulf Coast town outside of New Orleans in 1949. A group of old friends, now middle-aged, meet at the end of the summer at Constance Tuckerman's guesthouse . Constance, and her french-born niece Sophie, live in the family home, now turned into a guesthouse after Constance's parents died and the family fortune was gone.
Many of the old friends visiting for the summer are regular summer guests. Carrie Ellis, her son Frederick, and her mother-in-law Mrs. Ellis visit every summer, as do General Benjamin Griggs and his wife Rose. This summer, however, Constance's former flame Nick Denery and his wife visit, and disrupt many of the romantic ideals Constance held about her old beau and about life, and love, in general.
Just as Constance is discovering what type of man Nick really is, the other characters are struggling with their own personal realizations.
General Griggs wants a divorce from his child-like wife, Rose, but comes to realize that the time will never really be right to leave Rose, and that he will "live to like her less" but will stay with her despite knowing this.
Sophie struggles in a new life in America, having left German occupied France and her mother at the insistence of her Aunt Constance. Although Constance has done everything to make Sophie happy in her new life, Sophie can't be at ease with herself in these foreign surroundings. Sophie agrees to marry Frederick, knowing that the marriage will be the closest thing to a better life, and possibly her best chance at returning home someday.
While many of the characters came from the same town, and grew up together as children and young adults, I wanted to visually display the difference between the characters with old-money, the nouveau-riche, and the formerly wealthy.
The Ellis's are old-money- I costumed Carrie and Mrs. Ellis in conservative lines and soft colors, mainly light blues and creams. Their jewelry is rich, yet tasteful.
Rose Griggs, on the other hand, is nouveau-riche. Her costumes are much more vibrant in color than the Ellis's (ranging from reds to pinks), and her jewelry is decidedly more flashy. The silhouette of Rose's costumes are much more form-fitting and less conservative, accenting her young and child-like personality.
With the Tuckerman wealth gone, Constance is now running the guesthouse to make ends meet. Courtney O'Neill's set exudes former wealth, but Constance's dresses needed to look "cheap" or hand-sewn. I used faded floral patterns for all of her dresses, evocative of former wealth a wilting garden in the fall. Constance's jewelry consisted of a simple gold locket.
Another important distinction that I wanted to clarify through costume was where the characters were from. Constance, the Ellis's, Rose Griggs, and Nick Denery are all from the South. General Griggs is a West Point military man; Nina, Nick's wife, is a New Yorker; and Sophie is French.
I gave Nina Denery's costumes a much more stream-lined look than the southern women's outfits. She mainly wears navy, and her costumes are much more tailored and with sharper edges than the other women's dresses. Although she is wealthy, her clothing and jewelry does not flaunt her wealth. She has a more elegant style than the other women.
Sophie does not have the "chic" that the other characters in The Autumn Garden expect from a European girl. She is not at complete ease with herself, and her costumes suggest her awkward sweetness. I chose faded prints for Sophie's costumes, as I had done with Constance's dresses. The first dress we see Sophie wearing is an ill-fitting party dress made of sheer faded floral fabric. This fabric makes Sophie look delicate, fragile, and easily passed by. I also favored pale plaids for her other dresses. These lines made Sophie appear boxed in and trapped.
As a military man, Griggs has more formality in his costume. He is always seen wearing a tie, and in several scenes is in a three piece suit. He is a little more old fashioned in his ways, as in his dress, and he is also a man resigned to old habits (in both life and dress.)Here are some reviews:
"The extraordinary design team creates one of the loveliest settings seen this year, accented by Elsa Hiltner’s gorgeous costume design and Cecil Averett’s beguiling musical composition."
'The Autumn Garden' by Venus Zarris for The Chicago Stage Review
"The production values are expert with Courtney O'Neill's fine set, Chris Corwin's lighting and Elsa Hiltner's period-perfect costumes."
'The Autumn Garden' by Tom Williams for ChicagoCritic.com
"Courtney O'Neill's set suggests faded wealth and makes the most of a tiny stage space, and Elsa Hiltner's period costumes add zest."
Hellman's 'Garden' Doesn't Bring Out the Best in Characters, Story by Hedy Weiss for the Chicago Sun-Times
'The Autumn Garden' by Anna Pulley for CenterStage Chicago
Photos thanks to Eclipse Theatre Company.
