Analysis Of The Costumes Design In The Production “Shrek The Musical”
Design in theatre is a very broad topic that consist of many different categories. The four main categories of design include Set, Costumes, Lighting, and Sound. In the production, “Shrek the Musical” I believe the most thought out category of design would be the costumes. The amount of detail that is implemented in the texture and color of the costumes is simply astonishing. Every costume in the production has its own unique aspects that distinguish it from the rest of the costumes. The costumes are very important to a play because they have to make the audience believe who they really are. For example, the donkey in “Shrek the Musical” must have enough characteristics of a donkey for the audience to believe that it is a donkey, not a human actor.
The costume worn by Shrek has a consistent amount of tiny details that can easily be missed by the human eye. Specifically in the makeup, there are blemishes on the top of Shrek’s head that forms an ugly texture. The designer of this costume uses these blemishes to portray the disgusting, rough skin of a real ogre. Shrek in the play is thought of as scary and ugly and these blemishes give the skin a unique sense of ugly deformity. Another example of this can be seen when Shrek’s hands are closely examined. The oversized hand with discolor in the fingernails supports the assumption of the characters being scared of Shrek. The makeup used on Shrek’s costume is true very fitting to the storyline of the production.
The texture of Shrek’s skin is an effective way to portray ugliness in the ogre. Another way the costume designers are able to do this is through the costume itself. It is interesting to me that in every scene of the play, Shrek is wearing the same clothes, even at the wedding in the finale while Fiona is dressed as a bride. I argue that the reason Shrek never changes from his ragged clothes is for the same point of portraying his ugliness.
Sharing little similarities with Shrek’s costume, the donkey still has an interesting portrayal to the audience. Making an audience believe that a human is a donkey can be a hard task to fulfill. The costume designer does a very detailed job that I believe is successful. The texture of the costume includes a coating of excessively soft fur on the outside with a tiny face hole and abnormally large ears. The costume contains fur much softer than that of a real donkey. I believe that the fur of the donkey is a reflection of the personality of the donkey in the production, very soft. One unusual aspect of the donkeys costume was within the movement of the actor. In Shrek the movie, Shrek towers over the height of the donkey, as in the play the donkey is seemingly taller than Shrek while standing on two feet. The reason this is unusual is because another shorter character, Lord Farquaad, has a manipulated costume to make match his real height.
The actor playing Lord Farquaad is not as short as Lord Farquaad is suppose to be, but he uses movement to seem that he is. Farquaad’s cape is long enough to hide that he is walking on his knees to match the height. It is worth it for the actor to do this to accurately portray who Lord Farquaad really is. The texture in Lord Farquaad’s costume is dissimilar to Shrek’s because everything from his clothes to skin has a smooth texture. The primary colors of his costume is red and blue which is a symbol of royalty.
Princess Fiona and Shrek’s costumes portray exact opposites throughout the production while Fiona represents royalty and Shrek represents an ugly outcast. A theme that can be seen between these two is that “opposites attract. ” The costumes support this theme in the fact Fiona fell in love with Shrek although they did earn that they share one similarity. Princess Fiona is also put into an ogre costume that looks very similar to Shrek, also with the detailed rough green skin.
In conclusion, the extravagant costumes used in “Shrek the Musical” have much more significance than just an appealing sight. The costumes portray the characters and give a visual representation of how the character are seen by the other characters in the play. The costume designer of the production did a wonderful job of dressing the characters to fit their personality. The time and effort of the design put in was well worth it to make the play the most appealing it could possibly be.
