The Royal Robes (A Retake)

The above outfit is worn by the title character in the
just-opened play, God Save Gertrude, a punk rock-meets-theater riff that was
penned by a local ‘wright and is, in fact, loosely inspired by Hamlet’s mother (cuz
Ophelia is played out, donchyaknow). I suspect the character, a singer, has
something in common with Patti Smith, too, although that’s just an educated
guess based off the press release. I haven’t yet seen the play, but plan to
next weekend.

In any case, Laura Fulk, a local fashion designer with, what
I would call, an avant-and/or-punk rock aesthetic, designed the getup. Now, because
we have this so-called thriving theater scene, the Twin Cities are full of great
professional costume designers. (For example: Sonya Berlovitz, whom I used to
know at Theatre de la Jeune Lune, is just scary brilliant.) But I, for one,
appreciate that, in this instance, the playwright, Deborah Stein, reached out
to a fashion designer. I like to see artists venturing from their silos. And
this play–a fashion meets theater meets punk rock mash-up–seems to spread across many forms.