Unusual Artifacts: The Gravedigger's Headdress, 1942

Costume Headdress
1942
The Victoria & Albert Museum

Isn’t this fun? Here, we see the “Headdress for the Gravedigger” from Robert Helpmann's 1942 ballet version of Hamlet that was performed with Sadler's Wells Ballet at the New Theatre. This chilling costume piece is composed of a jester's motley in papier mache, and in the back, the form of a skull. Trimmed with faux ivy it is painted in muted reds and yellows.

The costume is the work of Leslie Hurry (1909-1978) who trained at the Royal Academy in the 1930s where he became known as a surrealist painter. Hurry’s exhibition in 1942 was seen by the theatre director, Michael Benthall, who recommended Hurry to the dancer and choreographer, Robert Helpmann, who was in preproduction for the aforementioned ballet based on Shakespeare's Hamlet.

Hurry’s costumes were a huge hit and the success of his designs led him to second career as one of the most celebrated theatre designers of his generation. Hurry would go on to design operas, ballets and plays which were heralded for their surreal and contemporary approaches.

Helpmann's one-act ballet was inspired by the original lines from Shakespeare, “For in that sleep what dreams may come/When we have shuffled off this mortal coil.” The ballet depicts the distorted memories of the dying Hamlet. Helpmann cut the named characters to eight—all of whom are already dead, with the exception of the Gravedigger who is the first to appear.

In Hamlet's confused, expiring mind, the gravedigger becomes the long-deceased jester, Yorick. Hurry’s costume for the character is, on one side, a gravedigger's leather tunic, and on the other, a multi-colored jester's outfit.