Costumes Centre Stage:'Re-membering' Ellen Terry

This chapter illuminates the important function which stage costumes can play in what Marvin Carlson termed ‘ghosting.’ Having established the role of costumes as ‘carriers of identity’ and ‘memory’ it considers why and how performers might deliberately reference their own past roles by re-creating, or alluding to costumes which reference a previous performance, or a specific aspect of their celebrity. Through the close analysis of specific examples from the wardrobe of celebrated Victorian actress, Dame Ellen Terry (1847-1928), it highlights the degree to which costumes are haunted by ‘ghosts’ of ‘performers’ and ‘performances’ both during the lifetime of their original wearer(s), and after their death.