Focus on Theatre Design : Oliver Messel

Oliver Messel (13 January 1904 – 13 July 1978) was an English artist and one of the foremost stage designers of the 20th century. He started his artistic life as a portrait painter and commissions for theatre work soon followed, beginning with his designing the masks for a London production of Serge Diaghilev's ballet Zephyr et Flore (1925). Subsequently, he created masks, costumes, and sets – many of which have been preserved by the V and A Performing Arts Department.

His work as a set designer was also featured in the USA in such Broadway shows as The Country Wife (1936); The Lady's Not For Burning (1950); Romeo and Juliet (1951); House of Flowers (1954), for which he won the Tony Award; and Rashomon (1959), which was nominated for a Tony Award for his costume as well as his set design. He also designed the costumes for Romeo and Juliet; Rashomon; and Gigi (1973), the latter two receiving Tony Award nominations.
 
For film his costume designs include The Private Life of Don Juan (1934); Scarlet Pimpernel (1934); Romeo and Juliet (1936); The Thief of Bagdad (1940); and Caesar and Cleopatra (1945). For Romeo and Juliet he also served as Set Decorator. He was Art Director on Caesar and Cleopatra (1945), On Such a Night (1956) and Production Designer on Suddenly Last Summer (1959), for which he was nominated for the Academy Award.

The library/ Theatre Collection of the University of Bristol acquired his personal archive in 2015 and through project funding have digitised and made accessible a great deal of his documents, which tell a fascinating tale not simply of an artist but also a passionate man, who was well ahead of his time in terms of social concerns and cultural aesthetics.

Click here to visit the Oliver Messel archive online at the University of Bristol

Click here for Oliver Messel exhibition website at University of Bristol

Click here to visit the Oliver Messel pages of the V and A website