The Iliad: Costume design

THE ILIAD
by Chris Hanan
Royal Lyceum Theatre, Edinburgh
Director: Mark Thomson
Costume Designer: Megan Baker
Set Designer: Karen Tenant
Lighting Designer; Simon Wilkinson
Composer: Claire McKenzie
Fight Director; Raymond Short
 
Date: Performances April 20-May 13 2015.
 
Costumes designed for a world premiere of a new version of Homer’s The Iliad by Chris Hannan for performance at the Royal Lyceum Edinburgh’s as part of its 50th anniversary season. Through the text and production Megan explored new methodologies in collaboration with world class artists with particular research emphasis on the ability to explore the link between the past and present through costume design, cut, colour, fabric and relationship with set, lighting and music and how costume might contribute to the political dialectic and context of a piece of theatre. The piece of work was to research and design costumes for a new production of Homer’s Iliad to be performed on the Lyceum stage for 22 performances. The production concept was to reflect the original adaptation’s taking the original epic poem structure and transposing it to dramatic form that was both rooted in the period of the original but rich in anachronism toward the Trojan war as an exploration of “all wars.” Megan worked alongside the other creative team members to realize the work as a vibrant piece of contemporary theatre, unique in presentation and resonating strongly into our contemporary world