Orpheus in the Underworld

Gerald Scarfe is best-known as a savagely brilliant cartoonist, but he has designed several theatrical productions in his career as well as creating design and animation for Pink Floyd's concert tour and film 'The Wall.' His first theatre designs were for English National Opera's 1985 production of Orpheus in the Underworld, and the blending of his talents with Offenbach's witty satire of the French Second Empire was an imaginative idea. 

The costume resembles a traditional devil rather than the classical Pluto, king of the Underworld. It conveys the idea of the devil as a fashionable mid-19th century gentleman, which fits the period when the operetta was first performed. To achieve the effect, the tailcoat (the coat tails being literally forked tails) and hat are covered with alternating horizontal lines of red and green scales, the hat having devil's 'horns'. The green 'waistcoat', fixed inside the coat edges, mirrors the green scales, while the red trousers pick up the red scales. The dickey and cuffs are serrated to suggest flames and are made in red lurex fabric, which is also used to line the coat tails and cover the forked end of the tails.

The scales on the tailcoat could have been drawn onto the fabric and coloured in, but the designer and maker chose the more labour-intensive way of cutting and stitching each row of scales before attaching each row individually, which makes for a more lively effect. The coat tails are stiffened and shaped, reinforcing the idea of someone not quite human. The forked tails can be fastened onto the front of the coat, unfastened to trail behind or become a useful actor's accessory. The problem is getting the tails to fold and fasten without destroying the correct shape of the tails at the back. 

Click here to view a rotational video of the costume.

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