{"id":91207,"date":"2026-05-24T16:25:18","date_gmt":"2026-05-24T16:25:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/91207\/"},"modified":"2026-05-24T16:25:18","modified_gmt":"2026-05-24T16:25:18","slug":"playing-dress-up-a-return-to-decadence","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/91207\/","title":{"rendered":"Playing Dress-Up: a Return to Decadence"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"\"\"Photo credit: Makar Artemev<\/p>\n

In my last column, I wrote about the increasing presence of full nudity on Berlin\u2019s stages. Not that nudity in and of itself is anything new, but that I\u2019d noticed in recent years that more performers and directors are placing naked bodies front and centre in their work. Don\u2019t get me wrong, I\u2019m 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\u2019s always integral to the work.<\/p>\n

For this issue\u2019s 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\u2019ve always been drawn to this element of showbiz (perhaps that\u2019s 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.<\/p>\n

\"\"\"\"Leila Hekmat: Roses Rising \u2013 The Movement, Amely Sommer<\/p>\n

Case in point: the premiere of Roses Rising \u2013 The Movement and Roses Rising \u2013 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: \u201cIt always happens in tandem, but it\u2019s 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.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"\"\"Cast member from George White S Scandals, The White Sea (1922), with a costume designed by Ert\u00e9. Image credit: IMAGO \/\u00a0GRANGER Historical Picture Archive<\/p>\n

If you\u2019re unfamiliar with Hekmat\u2019s 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 Ert\u00e9 (Romain de Tirtoff), the costume and stage designer popular during the Art Deco period, known for his lavish drapery and 1920s silent movie grandeur. <\/p>\n

\"\"\"\"Leila Hekmat, Roses Rising \u2013 The Dinner, by Frank Sperling<\/p>\n

This style is combined with 70s counterculture aesthetics similar to The Cockettes, a radical queer performance group from San Francisco\u2019s 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 \u2013 lace, silk and black satin, for example \u2013 lends itself to a sensual elegance, which is in stark contrast to the slapstick being played out onstage.<\/p>\n

\"\"\"\"The Cockettes, photo credits: IMAGO \/\u00a0ZUMA Press Wire<\/p>\n

I\u2019ve always been drawn to this element of showbiz \u2026 where styling tells its own story and allows us to slip into another world.<\/p>\n

Within all of this, there\u2019s 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\u2019arte. 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.<\/p>\n

\"\"\"\"Leila Hekmat, Roses Rising \u2013 The Dinner, by Frank Sperling<\/p>\n

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\u2019m not sure it signals a wider shift just yet, but it does make me wonder whether, after years of \u2018less is more\u2019, there might be room for something more excessive again \u2013 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\u2019m here for it.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Photo credit: Makar Artemev In my last column, I wrote about the increasing presence of full nudity on…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":91208,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[99],"tags":[112,26846,47998,190,4623,16405,8932],"class_list":["post-91207","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-berlin","tag-berlin","tag-clothing","tag-costume","tag-germany","tag-opinion","tag-stage","tag-theater"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@dk\/116630488966222908","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/91207","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=91207"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/91207\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/91208"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=91207"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=91207"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=91207"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}