By design, her costumes have centuries of style
John Vanbrugh's "The Provok'd Wife" begins with marital discord between an aristocratic couple and moves into attempted adultery, feminine power schemes, and debauchery -- all accompanied by a dizzying array of opulent costumes.
The play, now running at the American Repertory Theatre, was written in the late-17th century, although the costumes are a mix and match of just about every century but that one. And the process of putting together what became 76 costumes for some 22 cast members was a mix in itself: of borrowing, buying, as well as making.
Costume designer Gabriel Berry and director Mark Wing-Davey agreed early on that they wanted to ground the design in the period but not be shackled to it.
"The fact that it was a comedy, and a sexy comedy, were the things that I connected with," Berry says. "We weren't going to aggressively seek out anachronisms or a postmodern look, or avoid them if it seemed like the right thing to do."
The two had little time for discussion. Berry was brought in at the last minute after the first designer had unexpected visa problems. But she was a known quantity, having designed costumes for ART shows as varied as "The Birthday Party," "Pericles," "Henry IV," "Henry V," "Threepenny Opera," and "The Tempest."
The pair started with a catalog Wing-Davey brought from the Vivienne Westwood fashion exhibit at the Victoria and Albert Museum in London. Westwood achieved fame as a punk-rock designer who also combined period references.
"She had a lot more 18th-century references, but frankly, I went from the 17th, 18th, 19th, 20th, and 21st centuries freely," Berry says. "I can't say I'm terribly fond of the silhouette of 1697. But I kept it for Mademoiselle (Karen MacDonald), because it was formal and exquisite."
Knowing that they'd have to build off ART's stock of costumes, the first thing Berry did was paw through them to find what was most appealing.
"I discover what I think by how I react to what I see," she says. "I knew at first I was thinking pink. I didn't know much more than that."
Many of the costumes have panniers, those basketlike skirt extensions that jut out from ladies' hips. And not just ladies. Bill Camp, who plays Sir John Brute, in one scene dresses up in his wife's gown, which has them. Brute uses his panniers to carry his wine bottle.
Berry also went shopping for sweaters. "There's something about sweaters with panniers that makes me happy," she says.
In the play, Lady Brute (Kate Forbes) and her niece Bellinda (Deborah Knox Meschan) go to a park at night, disguised as tarts, to meet two wooers. Sweaters come in handy here when they get discovered and have to cover up quickly.
"Some people say when they see Kate they think of Maria Callas or Jackie Kennedy. There's definitely a '50s, '60s feel. Then when that happened we decided she just had to have a strand of pearls. How could she not?"
In shopping for fabrics, Berry says she enjoys mixing up the contemporary patterning with semi-period materials. And she's open to surprises.
"Oftentime when you swatch fabrics you go in a different direction than the one you'd originally planned. Lady Fancyfull's first outfit was a pattern of little [Chinese men] and pagoda on top of greeny-mustard ground. I was going to do lavender and lace, but no, it was [Chinese men] on mustard.
"I have to go with what gives me pleasure," Berry says. "If you trust what you're reacting to, it's a more valid choice than if you try to second-guess the director or the audience."
Berry says she passed a fabric wholesaler in New York and was drawn in by some fluffy, green fake fur she saw there. That ended up being used for the jacket over Lady Fancyfull's mustardy dress. "It mugged me," she says of the fabric.
Some of the costumes came from Berry's own voluminous stash in her New York loft and a rented house in upstate New York. One was a leather bikini top, worn by Meschan in the park scene.
"I made that bikini top . . . years ago for a party at [the '80s New York club] Danceteria. I'm doing a musical in New York that doesn't have enough money, and I just grabbed the top out of a pile. I thought it might work here, too. I put it on Deborah, who's the dearest, most adorable thing, and she got into it.
"I like to pull out old items, because when you make new things it's hard to sometimes infuse them with life," Berry says. "Old things have a patina on them."
Through Dec. 26 at Loeb Drama Center, 64 Brattle St., Cambridge. 617-547-8300; www.amrep.org.
Family connections
In Ginger Lazarus's "Matter Familias," a play so filled with coincidences that in the end, just about everyone ends up having the same last name and is related to one another, the main character, Katherine Peterson, shares the same name (though different spelling) as Catherine Peterson, the head of ArtsBoston.
Lazarus says it was not deliberate. "I picked it purposefully because it's a common name," she says. "I was just playing around with the fact that these coincidences just sort of pop up. It was definitely not named after any one person."
For her part, the real Catherine Peterson says of the character Katherine, "I hear she's a therapist. I love it!"
Through Dec. 19 at Boston Playwrights' Theatre, 949 Commonwealth Ave. 617-358-7529; www.bu.edu/bpt/.
Corner stories
New African Company, New England's oldest black theater company, presents "As Told on the Corner" this weekend at the Museum of the National Center of Afro-American Artists. The evening of short plays by John Adekoje and Mwalim *7) explores the trickster in contemporary black and Native American cultures. Vincent Ernest Siders directs this fund-raiser for New African Company. The show runs tonight through Sunday at 300 Walnut Ave., Roxbury. Call 617-541-1036 for information. Tickets are available at the door.
