In my last column, I wrote about the increasing presence of full nudity on Berlin’s stages. Not that nudity in and of itself is anything new, but that I’d noticed in recent years that more performers and directors are placing naked bodies front and centre in their work. Don’t get me wrong, I’m fully in support of stripping off if the work calls for it, but I also appreciate carefully crafted and executed styling, specifically for clothes, hair and makeup. It may be treated as
an afterthought, but for me it’s always integral to the work. For this issue’s stage feature, I joined a specialist backstage tour of the hair and makeup department at the Komische Oper Berlin, the place where, particularly in opera, the magic happens. I’ve always been drawn to this element of showbiz (perhaps that’s my inner showgirl talking), where styling tells its own story and allows us to slip into another world. I want performance, above all, to offer a sense of escape. Case in point:
the premiere of Roses Rising – The Movement and Roses Rising – The Dinner by Leila Hekmat at Gropius Bau and HAU. Hekmat is a strong example of an artist for whom costuming is not an accessory, but a central dramaturgical force. Of course, most productions have a budget for costumes and employ designers, but here the relationship feels deeper. Costume and styling are embedded in the creation of character, narrative and plot. As Hekmat puts it: “It always happens in tandem, but it’s a
long, extensive process of research and collection. Image research develops into text research and vice versa. I build characters and visuals, collect notes, and the script comes last.” If you’re unfamiliar with Hekmat’s work, especially in the recent performances staged at Gropius Bau and HAU, it incorporates a spectrum of visual reference points, interwoven with historical and cultural borrowing. In these pieces you can see echoes of Erté (Romain de Tirtoff), the costume and stage designer popular during the Art Deco period, known for his
lavish drapery and 1920s silent movie grandeur. This style is combined with 70s counterculture aesthetics similar to The Cockettes, a radical queer performance group from San Francisco’s flower power era. This was a group for whom any shiny material was repurposed into a costume as a welcomed addition to their already altered psychedelic states. Hekmat also incorporates transparent materials, flirting with something akin to exquisitely tailored fetish wear. The use of textures – lace, silk and black satin, for example – lends itself to a
sensual elegance, which is in stark contrast to the slapstick being played out onstage. I’ve always been drawn to this element of showbiz … where styling tells its own story and allows us to slip into another world. Within all of this, there’s an element of playing dress-up: a light-hearted innocence that sits alongside the precision of the tailoring, amplifying the characters even further. It brings to mind, and not pejoratively, pantomime: a highly visual, theatrical performance originating from the Italian commedia dell’arte. The panto,
often aimed towards children at Christmas time, combines elements of drag, comedy and physical theatre with a wink-wink, double-entendre script, cleverly transcending the generational gap in the audience. It still feels relatively unusual in Berlin to encounter this kind of visual density, particularly on the independent theatre scene. A lot of work tends towards reduction, fewer elements, less decoration, bodies stripped back to their essentials (hello, culture cuts!) which is why something like this stands out. I’m not sure it signals a wider shift just
yet, but it does make me wonder whether, after years of ‘less is more’, there might be room for something more excessive again – more phantasmagorical. Not as nostalgia, exactly, but as another way of thinking about what performance can do. If this is a return to decadence, I’m here for it.
Berlin theatre, Komische Oper Berlin, Gropius Bau, HAU, Leila Hekmat, Roses Rising – The Movement, Roses Rising – The Dinner, costumes, hair and makeup, stage styling, Art Deco, Erté, The Cockettes, commedia dell'arte, pantomime