Own a piece of Cork theatre history as the Everyman puts half of its costumes up for sale

The Everyman Theatre is selling some of its most iconic costumes this weekend. Ellie O’Byrne has a sneak preview

Naomi Daly with a military uniform worn in the romantic opera Der Vampyr. These vintage stage costumes will go up for public auction at the Everyman Palace Theatre, Cork on March 24 and 25. Pic: Dan Linehan

Backstage in the Everyman, Naomi Daly is flicking through rails of brightly coloured clothes. She pulls out a colourful tie-dyed cotton tunic dress.

“This one was worn by Siobhán McSweeney in the world première of Autumn Royal by Kevin Barry,” she says.

A little further along the same rail are two dresses worn by the late and much-loved soprano Cara O’Sullivan, one a patterned blue diaphanous shift dress that formed one of the layers of her costume for her critically acclaimed performance in the opera Pagliacci in 2012. They are rubbing shoulders with a red duffel coat worn by Cork actress Mary-Lou McCarthy in a 2016 production of heart-warming ‘80s drama The Factory Girls.

A gorgeous sequinned black and gold top is being tried on by one of Naomi’s colleagues, marketing assistant Úna Hennessy. “This piece we originally purchased for Gina Moxley to wear in Futureproof, directed by Tom Creed,” Naomi says.

Ever dreamed of donning greasepaint and treading the boards? If you’re more of a fashionista than a thespian, these rails might be as close as you can get to your own personal dress rehearsal: The Everyman’s in-house costume department is about to host a vintage rail sale with a difference. And many of the pieces up for grabs are quite literally a part of Cork theatre history.

Siobhán McSweeney in Kevin Barry's play Autumn Royal: her costume is among the pieces in the Everyman's costume sale this weekend. Picture: Miki Barlok

'BACK OUT INTO THE WORLD'

Naomi is Senior Producer at the Everyman and has worked in the theatre for 17 years. She’s been preparing for the sale, sorting through a stunning array of costumes from over 50 theatrical productions. The decision to sell off roughly half of the theatre’s wardrobe stock is based largely on space considerations, she says.

“It’s nice to be able to put some of these pieces back out into the world,” she says. “When we had a look at what we’re planning in the next two years, we realised we are absolutely out of space so we decided this sale was the best thing to do. All the funds raised will go back into refreshing the costume stock, so rather than them getting moth-eaten in a cupboard and no-one getting to see them, to be more sustainable, the best thing is to send them back out into the world and start building again.

“There are furs and coats and hats dating to the eighties, but we made a concerted effort to start building a collection in around 2010 so most of the stuff will have been collected by us in the last 12 to 14 years.”

Naomi Daly: "There’s loads of sizes, because it’s all been worn by real people on the stage, at the end of the day." Pic: Dan Linehan

One thing you might expect from a theatrical wardrobe sale is panto costumes, but the clothes on sale are not fancy dress. What’s been chosen is all street wear, while panto and period costumes are being kept by the Everyman for future productions. The idea is for fashion-lovers to take home, wear and love these clothes.

“You tend to re-use panto costumes,” Naomi says. “You might cut something up or put different embellishments on them to use in future years. We’re trying to avoid the Fast Fashion thing as much as possible, to be honest, so all those specialist costumes get reused or recycled in some way. Or we have things that stay in stock so that period dramas can rent things from us. That stuff is staying in rotation, but these pieces are things that everyone could wear.” 

A surprising number of the items of clothing in the sale have actually never been worn: there’s a black Karen Millen dress, still with its tag on, that didn’t quite make it into a production of the opera Der Vampyr in 2014, a Hawaiian shirt meant for a 2018 production of Martin McDonagh’s The Lonesome West.

It’s not only women’s clothes on sale. For men, some highlights include an army-green t-shirt worn by singer-songwriter Mick Flannery in the musical Evening Train, and a fleece-lined corduroy jacket worn by his co-star, Dublin-based actor Ian Lloyd Anderson.

The budget for a theatrical production can range from €250 to many thousands, Naomi says, depending largely on the size of the cast and the number of scenes they have.

“You have everything from a one-person monologue where the actor spends an hour on stage and has no costume change, to a production like Faust, which has 124 people with multiple costume changes,” she says. “You work from the style of the show, so if it’s contemporary dress you can run down to Dunnes or Penney’s and get a whole wardrobe for €250, but if it’s period Irish drama, it might be €200 per person.”

Ciaran Conway wearing a costume from the Lonesome West by Martin McDonagh, and Úna Hennessy wearing a top from a Gina Moxley play. Pic: Dan Linehan

CREATING A CYCLE

Most of these clothes are off-the-rack from well-known high street chains, but there’s also the odd handmade piece as well as vintage furs and pieces evoking different fashion eras: ‘60s and ‘70s style pieces, right up to heavy metal t-shirts and dungarees straight from the ‘80s.

But it’s all been chosen by top costume designers including well-known names in theatre like Lisa Zagone, Valentina Gambardella and Deirdre Dwyer. “Even from a vintage point of view, it’s all been curated by a trained eye, by someone who knows exactly what they’re doing and is trained to find things that match specific eras,” Naomi says. 

“Every production we do, we bring in a costume designer to work on the shows. The Everyman pays for everything, so the clothes are ours, whether they go into the production or not. Other theatre companies have borrowed stuff from us: Corcadorca have borrowed pieces for productions, The Opera House… and some things have been on film as well so even if it hasn’t been on the Everyman stage, you might have seen it in a film.

“There’s loads of sizes, because it’s all been worn by real people on the stage, at the end of the day. So I think there’s something for everyone to find, if you dig in.”

Ciaran Conway wearing a costume from the Lonesome West by Martin McDonagh, Úna Hennessy wearing a top from a Gina Moxley play and Naomi Daly wearing a costume from Autumn Royal. Pic: Dan Linehan

Although the Everyman is a registered charity, 94% of their income comes from box office sales. Naomi says that, with the rail sale, they also hope to raise awareness of the theatre as a charity, and a cultural institution worthy of support by the countless patrons who have enjoyed performances there. The sale will be conducted on a donations basis, with a recommended donation suggested for different items of clothing.

There’s already plenty of public interest: when the theatre decided to sell a limited number of €10 early entry tickets to the sale, they sold out in short order. Naomi hopes that the sale will become a regular part of fundraising for the theatre.

“This is a clothes thing, but you also know you’re supporting the theatre by coming in and buying a nice dress for yourself,” Naomi says.

“It’s all donations-driven, so you come in and make a donation to the Everyman. In some ways, the most important function of this is to let people know that the Everyman is a charity. So it’s about creating a cycle of things that can happen to make our wardrobe department more sustainable and raise funds. Every couple of years we’d like to have one of these, so hopefully this is the first of many.”

• The Everyman will hold their wardrobe sale today and tomorrow, from 11am to 5pm each day, in the foyer of The Everyman on McCurtain Street.