Papers of Max and Thelma Afford, 1912-1987
 PANEL 4 | Move your cursor over the image to view detail
Item 12 Album 3, UQFL184 |
Another production Thelma costumed for the Minerva Theatre was Dark Enchantment. The play was authored by Thelma’s husband Max Afford, who wrote eight crime novels and over sixty plays for radio and stage during his career. Dark Enchantment is set in a London guest house in 1895. Thelma discussed some of the difficulties of designing costumes when, in an article in The Sunday Herald, she said:
After the designing of the clothes comes the really hard work, when I have to start looking for materials. For one dress in ‘Dark Enchantment’ I thought of a vivid purple. I found the shade I wanted, but when I tried it under the stage lights it looked a dead black, so I started all over again.
The play ran for an extended season at the Minerva Theatre in 1949, before touring in England in 1950. Several copies of the play, along with many of Max’s other works, are also held by the Fryer Library.
Altogether, there are approximately 175 designs in the Afford albums, documenting a career which spanned over twenty years. Eventually Thelma returned to teaching; fortunately these beautiful albums remain as a record of her remarkable talent for design.
Penny Whiteway, Fryer Library
|
