Marcel Breuer and Motley

In 1936 a new kind of theatre school opened in Islington, North London. The London Theatre Studio was the first British drama school to incorporate theatre design and also included the training of directors, stage managers and lighting designers. The building was adapted for the school by a young Hungarian architect from the Bauhaus, Marcel Breuer. The designers in charge of the theatre design course were three women who practiced under the name of Motley.

The meeting between these important theatre designers and the architect led to a collaboration which went beyond the London Theatre Studio project. When the Motleys ventured into the field of contemporary fashion and decided to open a shop called Motley Couture, they asked Breuer to design the interior of their shop for them.

Both Breuer and Motley continue to have a huge influence on their respective arts. We are still fascinated and delighted by Breuer’s architecture, and his furniture designs are available for sale to this day. Motley influenced theatre design so fundamentally through both their work and their teaching that it is inconceivable to imagine Britain having such a worldwide reputation for design without them.

This text was originally written to accompany the exhibition Collaborators: UK Design for Performance 2003-2007, on display at the V&A South Kensington between 21 November 2007 and 31 August 2008.