Jocelyn Herbert
Encyclopedia
Jocelyn Herbert RDI
(22 February 1917 - 6 May 2003) was a highly influential British stage designer.
(1890–1971). Through him she had contact with theatre people, artists and writers. Herbert began her artistic training in Paris
under the painter André Lhote
(1885–1962). She then continued her education at the Slade School of Art, London where she trained in theatre design before joining the London Theatre Studio in 1936 where her theatre designs were used in the Studio's theatrical experiments. It was here that she was taught by Margaret Harris
and Sophie Harris
of the Motley Theatre Design Group
. World War II
(1939–1945) interrupted this final stage of training, leading Herbert to concentrate on her family life.
's (1910–1966) English Stage Company, Devine was a theatrical manager, director, teacher and actor. The Company was based at The Royal Court Theatre, London. Her first production was Eugène Ionesco's (1909–1994) play The Chairs. The Court attracted a hub of writers and Herbert worked on new material by the playwrights John Arden
, Arnold Wesker
, John Osborne
, Samuel Beckett
and David Storey
. It was also at the Court that she first collaborated with the directors Lindsay Anderson
, John Dexter
and Tony Richardson
.
(1907–1989) at the Old Vic
, an association that led to her being invited by Olivier to join the Committee planning the National's new building on London's South Bank (opened 1976) and over which she exerted considerable influence on the shaping of the auditoria. It was at the National that Herbert first collaborated with the playwright Tony Harrison
on his translation of The Oresteia
(1980) which also played in the amphitheatre at Epidaurus
, Greece. This was the beginning of a rich partnership with Harrison which went on to span both a series of theatre projects and also the Channel 4
film, Prometheus
(1998). A rare sympathy grew between Harrison and Herbert to the extent that the boundaries between script and design became fluid.
Herbert was therefore influential in set design, as prior to her the trend was for sumptuous sets that recreated a room/place rather than a mood or atmosphere. Her tryptic working methods brought the designer, directors and authors of plays and productions closer together.
Among Herbert's productions were: The Kitchen, Happy Days and Home (starring Ralph Richardson
and John Gielgud
) at the Royal Court
; Laurence Olivier
's Othello and Early Days (starring Ralph Richardson
) at the National Theatre, London; The Seagull (starring Vanessa Redgrave
and Peggy Ashcroft
) in the West End, London. From 1967 she also designed for the opera. Herbert's first design for opera was for Sadler's Wells. She later worked at the Paris Opera House and the Metropolitan Opera
, New York. Her last opera was Harrison Birtwistle
's The Mask of Orpheus
at the Coliseum in 1986.
's Tom Jones
and she worked with him again on Ned Kelly (1970) and Hotel New Hampshire (1983). For Karel Reisz
she designed Isadora (1968), and films with Lindsay Anderson
included If…. (1968), O Lucky Man! (1973) and The Whales of August (1987).
, London. A love affair developed between Jocelyn and George — love letters were discovered by George's daughter Harriet, and in due course they abandoned their families and moved into studios in Flood Street, Chelsea
, together. They never married, but Devine willed his estate to her. Herbert died on 6 May 2003, in Long Sutton
, Hampshire.
The Jocelyn Herbert Award was established after her death and was given until 2007 by the Linbury Trust and Jocelyn's family (in 2009 it was given by the Jocelyn Herbert Archive at Wimbledon College of Art and sponsored by the Rootstein Hopkins Foundation) to the candidate who epitomises Jocelyn's belief in theatre. The successful candidate needs to have:
These qualities reflect Herbert's own words about design:
"For me, there seems no right way to design a play, only, perhaps, a right approach. One of respecting the text, past or present, and not using it as a peg to advertise your skills, whatever they may be, nor to work out your psychological hang-ups with some fashionable gimmick."
Royal Designers for Industry
Royal Designer for Industry is a distinction established by the British Royal Society of Arts in 1936, to encourage a high standard of industrial design and enhance the status of designers. It is awarded to people who have achieved "sustained excellence in aesthetic and efficient design for...
(22 February 1917 - 6 May 2003) was a highly influential British stage designer.
Early life
Born in London, she was the second of the four children of the playwright, novelist, humorist and parliamentarian A. P. HerbertA. P. Herbert
Sir Alan Patrick Herbert, CH was an English humorist, novelist, playwright and law reform activist...
(1890–1971). Through him she had contact with theatre people, artists and writers. Herbert began her artistic training in Paris
Paris
Paris is the capital and largest city in France, situated on the river Seine, in northern France, at the heart of the Île-de-France region...
under the painter André Lhote
André Lhote
André Lhote was a French sculptor and painter of figure subjects, portraits, landscapes and still life. He was also very active and influential as a teacher and writer on art....
(1885–1962). She then continued her education at the Slade School of Art, London where she trained in theatre design before joining the London Theatre Studio in 1936 where her theatre designs were used in the Studio's theatrical experiments. It was here that she was taught by Margaret Harris
Margaret Harris
Margaret Frances Harris was an English theatre and opera costume and scenic designer.-Early years:Harris was born in Hayes, Kent, the fourth child and second daughter of William Birkbeck Harris, a Lloyds Insurance clerk, and his wife Kathleen Marion, née Carey...
and Sophie Harris
Sophie Harris
Audrey Sophia “Sophie” Harris was an English award winning theatre and opera costume and scenic designer.-Biography:...
of the Motley Theatre Design Group
Motley Theatre Design Group
Motley was the name of the theatre design firm made up of three English designers, sisters Margaret Harris and Sophie Harris , and Elizabeth Montgomery Wilmot . The name derives from the word 'Motley' as used by Shakespeare...
. World War II
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
(1939–1945) interrupted this final stage of training, leading Herbert to concentrate on her family life.
The Royal Court Theatre and George Devine
Herbert's professional career began in 1956 when she joined George DevineGeorge Devine
George Alexander Cassady Devine CBE was an extremely influential theatrical manager, director, teacher and actor in London from the late 1940s until his death. He also worked in the media of TV and film.-Biography:...
's (1910–1966) English Stage Company, Devine was a theatrical manager, director, teacher and actor. The Company was based at The Royal Court Theatre, London. Her first production was Eugène Ionesco's (1909–1994) play The Chairs. The Court attracted a hub of writers and Herbert worked on new material by the playwrights John Arden
John Arden
John Arden is an award-winning English playwright from Barnsley . His works tend to expose social issues of personal concern. He is a member of the Royal Society of Literature....
, Arnold Wesker
Arnold Wesker
Sir Arnold Wesker is a prolific British dramatist known for his contributions to kitchen sink drama. He is the author of 42 plays, 4 volumes of short stories, 2 volumes of essays, a book on journalism, a children's book, extensive journalism, poetry and other assorted writings...
, John Osborne
John Osborne
John James Osborne was an English playwright, screenwriter, actor and critic of the Establishment. The success of his 1956 play Look Back in Anger transformed English theatre....
, Samuel Beckett
Samuel Beckett
Samuel Barclay Beckett was an Irish avant-garde novelist, playwright, theatre director, and poet. He wrote both in English and French. His work offers a bleak, tragicomic outlook on human nature, often coupled with black comedy and gallows humour.Beckett is widely regarded as among the most...
and David Storey
David Storey
David Rhames Storey is an English playwright, screenwriter, award-winning novelist and a former professional rugby league player....
. It was also at the Court that she first collaborated with the directors Lindsay Anderson
Lindsay Anderson
Lindsay Gordon Anderson was an Indian-born, British feature film, theatre and documentary director, film critic, and leading light of the Free Cinema movement and the British New Wave...
, John Dexter
John Dexter
John Dexter was an English theatre, opera, and film director.- Theatre :Born in Derby, England, Dexter left school at the age of fourteen to serve in the British army during World War II. Following the war, he began working as a stage actor before turning to producing and directing shows for...
and Tony Richardson
Tony Richardson
Cecil Antonio "Tony" Richardson was an English theatre and film director and producer.-Early life:Richardson was born in Shipley, Yorkshire in 1928, the son of Elsie Evans and Clarence Albert Richardson, a chemist...
.
The National Theatre and Sir Laurence Olivier
Herbert then moved on to the National Theatre under the director, actor and producer Sir Laurence OlivierLaurence Olivier
Laurence Kerr Olivier, Baron Olivier, OM was an English actor, director, and producer. He was one of the most famous and revered actors of the 20th century. He married three times, to fellow actors Jill Esmond, Vivien Leigh, and Joan Plowright...
(1907–1989) at the Old Vic
Old Vic
The Old Vic is a theatre located just south-east of Waterloo Station in London on the corner of The Cut and Waterloo Road. Established in 1818 as the Royal Coburg Theatre, it was taken over by Emma Cons in 1880 when it was known formally as the Royal Victoria Hall. In 1898, a niece of Cons, Lilian...
, an association that led to her being invited by Olivier to join the Committee planning the National's new building on London's South Bank (opened 1976) and over which she exerted considerable influence on the shaping of the auditoria. It was at the National that Herbert first collaborated with the playwright Tony Harrison
Tony Harrison
Tony Harrison is an English poet and playwright. He is noted for controversial works such as the poem V and Fram, as well as his versions of ancient Greek tragedies, including the Oresteia and Hecuba...
on his translation of The Oresteia
The Oresteia
The Oresteia is a trilogy of Greek tragedies written by Aeschylus which concerns the end of the curse on the House of Atreus. When originally performed it was accompanied by Proteus, a satyr play that would have been performed following the trilogy; it has not survived...
(1980) which also played in the amphitheatre at Epidaurus
Epidaurus
Epidaurus was a small city in ancient Greece, at the Saronic Gulf. Two modern towns bear the name Epidavros : Palaia Epidavros and Nea Epidavros. Since 2010 they belong to the new municipality of Epidavros, part of the peripheral unit of Argolis...
, Greece. This was the beginning of a rich partnership with Harrison which went on to span both a series of theatre projects and also the Channel 4
Channel 4
Channel 4 is a British public-service television broadcaster which began working on 2 November 1982. Although largely commercially self-funded, it is ultimately publicly owned; originally a subsidiary of the Independent Broadcasting Authority , the station is now owned and operated by the Channel...
film, Prometheus
Prometheus
In Greek mythology, Prometheus is a Titan, the son of Iapetus and Themis, and brother to Atlas, Epimetheus and Menoetius. He was a champion of mankind, known for his wily intelligence, who stole fire from Zeus and gave it to mortals...
(1998). A rare sympathy grew between Harrison and Herbert to the extent that the boundaries between script and design became fluid.
Influence and style
Herbert's designs were characterised by simplicity in order to draw attention to the actors and the writing. Thus, where scenery and set pieces do appear they are in themselves significant to the action; this was especially true where there was no set but merely bare walls and floors. The use of sparse structures, visible rigging, gauzes, arches and shadows were employed to create ambience rather than realism. Herbert created acting spaces on stage by using lighting that highlighted different areas of the stage. Herbert fostered an artistic policy of close collaboration with script and playwrights and directors; Devine championed this method of collaborative working at the Court.Herbert was therefore influential in set design, as prior to her the trend was for sumptuous sets that recreated a room/place rather than a mood or atmosphere. Her tryptic working methods brought the designer, directors and authors of plays and productions closer together.
Among Herbert's productions were: The Kitchen, Happy Days and Home (starring Ralph Richardson
Ralph Richardson
Sir Ralph David Richardson was an English actor, one of a group of theatrical knights of the mid-20th century who, though more closely associated with the stage, also appeared in several classic films....
and John Gielgud
John Gielgud
Sir Arthur John Gielgud, OM, CH was an English actor, director, and producer. A descendant of the renowned Terry acting family, he achieved early international acclaim for his youthful, emotionally expressive Hamlet which broke box office records on Broadway in 1937...
) at the Royal Court
Royal Court Theatre
The Royal Court Theatre is a non-commercial theatre on Sloane Square, in the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea. It is noted for its contributions to modern theatre...
; Laurence Olivier
Laurence Olivier
Laurence Kerr Olivier, Baron Olivier, OM was an English actor, director, and producer. He was one of the most famous and revered actors of the 20th century. He married three times, to fellow actors Jill Esmond, Vivien Leigh, and Joan Plowright...
's Othello and Early Days (starring Ralph Richardson
Ralph Richardson
Sir Ralph David Richardson was an English actor, one of a group of theatrical knights of the mid-20th century who, though more closely associated with the stage, also appeared in several classic films....
) at the National Theatre, London; The Seagull (starring Vanessa Redgrave
Vanessa Redgrave
Vanessa Redgrave, CBE is an English actress of stage, screen and television, as well as a political activist.She rose to prominence in 1961 playing Rosalind in As You Like It with the Royal Shakespeare Company and has since made more than 35 appearances on London's West End and Broadway, winning...
and Peggy Ashcroft
Peggy Ashcroft
Dame Peggy Ashcroft, DBE was an English actress.-Early years:Born as Edith Margaret Emily Ashcroft in Croydon, Ashcroft attended the Woodford School, Croydon and the Central School of Speech and Drama...
) in the West End, London. From 1967 she also designed for the opera. Herbert's first design for opera was for Sadler's Wells. She later worked at the Paris Opera House and the Metropolitan Opera
Metropolitan Opera
The Metropolitan Opera is an opera company, located in New York City. Originally founded in 1880, the company gave its first performance on October 22, 1883. The company is operated by the non-profit Metropolitan Opera Association, with Peter Gelb as general manager...
, New York. Her last opera was Harrison Birtwistle
Harrison Birtwistle
Sir Harrison Paul Birtwistle CH is a British contemporary composer.-Life:Birtwistle was born in Accrington, a mill town in Lancashire some 20 miles north of Manchester. His interest in music was encouraged by his mother, who bought him a clarinet when he was seven, and arranged for him to have...
's The Mask of Orpheus
The Mask of Orpheus
The Mask of Orpheus is an opera with music by Harrison Birtwistle and a libretto by Peter Zinovieff. It was premiered in London at the English National Opera on May 21, 1986 to great critical acclaim. A recorded version conducted by Andrew Davis and Martyn Brabbins has also received good reviews...
at the Coliseum in 1986.
Cinema work
In addition to stage work Herbert also designed for the cinema, where she worked as production or costume designer. Her film work began in 1961 with Tony RichardsonTony Richardson
Cecil Antonio "Tony" Richardson was an English theatre and film director and producer.-Early life:Richardson was born in Shipley, Yorkshire in 1928, the son of Elsie Evans and Clarence Albert Richardson, a chemist...
's Tom Jones
Tom Jones (film)
Tom Jones is a 1963 British adventure comedy film, an adaptation of Henry Fielding's classic novel The History of Tom Jones, a Foundling , starring Albert Finney as the titular hero. It was one of the most critically acclaimed and popular comedies of its time, winning four Academy Awards...
and she worked with him again on Ned Kelly (1970) and Hotel New Hampshire (1983). For Karel Reisz
Karel Reisz
Karel Reisz was a Czech-born British filmmaker who was active in post–war Britain, and one of the pioneers of the new realist strain in 1950s and 1960s British cinema.-Early life:...
she designed Isadora (1968), and films with Lindsay Anderson
Lindsay Anderson
Lindsay Gordon Anderson was an Indian-born, British feature film, theatre and documentary director, film critic, and leading light of the Free Cinema movement and the British New Wave...
included If…. (1968), O Lucky Man! (1973) and The Whales of August (1987).
Personal life
Herbert had one marriage, to Anthony Lousada. They had four children — Sandra (who gained fame as a portrait photographer), Jenny, and twins Julian and Olivia. The family were neighbours of George and Sophie Devine, on Lower Mall in HammersmithHammersmith
Hammersmith is an urban centre in the London Borough of Hammersmith and Fulham in west London, England, in the United Kingdom, approximately five miles west of Charing Cross on the north bank of the River Thames...
, London. A love affair developed between Jocelyn and George — love letters were discovered by George's daughter Harriet, and in due course they abandoned their families and moved into studios in Flood Street, Chelsea
Chelsea, London
Chelsea is an area of West London, England, bounded to the south by the River Thames, where its frontage runs from Chelsea Bridge along the Chelsea Embankment, Cheyne Walk, Lots Road and Chelsea Harbour. Its eastern boundary was once defined by the River Westbourne, which is now in a pipe above...
, together. They never married, but Devine willed his estate to her. Herbert died on 6 May 2003, in Long Sutton
Long Sutton
Long Sutton may refer to:*Long Sutton, Hampshire, England*Long Sutton, Lincolnshire, England*Long Sutton, Somerset, England...
, Hampshire.
Herbert's legacy
Herbert was a seminal figure in post-war twentieth-century British theatre. She not only changed the way in which directors and audiences came to view stage design but she also fundamentally altered the relationship between writer, director and designer. She was responsible for designs for the world premieres of many of the plays now considered twentieth-century classics.The Jocelyn Herbert Award was established after her death and was given until 2007 by the Linbury Trust and Jocelyn's family (in 2009 it was given by the Jocelyn Herbert Archive at Wimbledon College of Art and sponsored by the Rootstein Hopkins Foundation) to the candidate who epitomises Jocelyn's belief in theatre. The successful candidate needs to have:
- A genuine interest in all aspects of theatre and belief in the importance of the collaborative effort needed to make the end result work at its best, in short a passion for the art of theatre.
- An exciting imagination and the artistic skill to visually demonstrate their ideas clearly.
- A respect and feeling for the original work being designed - text or music.
- A strength of personality and determination to see the work process through to the end.
- A desire for further study, time or simply some space to develop their ideas or missing knowledge.
These qualities reflect Herbert's own words about design:
"For me, there seems no right way to design a play, only, perhaps, a right approach. One of respecting the text, past or present, and not using it as a peg to advertise your skills, whatever they may be, nor to work out your psychological hang-ups with some fashionable gimmick."
External links
- The Jocelyn Herbert Archive is held by the University of the Arts, London.
- 'Jocelyn Herbert: A Theatre Workbook' was created using images from her Archive and interview script.
- Obituary, The Independent.
- Brief biography
- Film work summary
- Images of Herbert held at the National Portrait Gallery, London.
- The Jocelyn Herbert Award
- Guardian Obituary Thursday 8 May 2003