Contemplating ‘Costuming the Leading Ladies of Shakespeare: From Stratford to Orange County’ at UC Irvine

Before Ophelia’s madness set in. Photo by Allan Helmick

The first actress you encounter in the compact lobby exhibit “Costuming the Leading Ladies of Shakespeare: From Stratford to Orange County” at UC Irvine’s Langson Library is Ellen Terry as Lady Macbeth. In the reproduction of a painting by John Singer Sargent, Terry wears one of the most notorious costumes in Shakespearean leading-lady history: The dress has a crocheted layer in green wool and metallic blue thread, but its eye-catching iridescence is provided by a thousand green beetles’ wings. (They are routinely shed, not ripped off the insect.)