Home-made But ‘Medieval'

Press, Volume CVI, Issue 31092, 22 June 1966, Page 2

Home-made But ‘Medieval '

Footwear with a medieval air has caused nine women in Christchurch some concern. They are the wardrobe staff for the Canterbury Repertory Society’s production of “St. Joan,” who have worked on costumes for the cast of 40 for the last seven weeks.

Most of the costumes used for the society’s last production of “St. Joan” about 13 years ago are still in good shape. “But footwear in period plays always poses a problem,” said Mrs Stella Aitken, the acting wardrobe mistress.

Medieval styles cannot be bought in shops, so the women have manufactured their own. Light suede shoes and boots with elfin toes and serrated tops have been made on ordinary sewing machines.

Headgear for the cast has also been realistically fashioned from humble materials. A bishop’s mitre glitters with cellophane jewels.

St Joan is the only member of the cast who appears in full armour. Fortunately the armour fashioned for a former St Joan still holds good. The latest actress to play the role will lead her troops into battle, comfortably clad in Holland blind, lined with felt and painted silver. Two women will be on hand to help her into her costume. Members of the Canterbury

Founders* Society.—Her experiences as a nurse in France and England during the First World War and later in the backblocks of New Zealand were described by Mrs E. J. Tingay at a recent meeting of the Canterbury branch of the Founders’ Society.

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University Drama Society made a silver breastplate for St. Joan, using stiffened underfelt, but it did not fit

' and was given to another i • member of the cast 1 Yesterday, in the Repert tory society’s cramped quar-'

ters in Gloucester street, the wardrobe room was a scene of pinning, tacking, rucking, tucking, and ironing.