In “HOPE”, a new production by Thalia Theater Hamburg in collaboration with NITE Groningen, a dance ensemble and their director find themselves at a bar caught in a whirlwind of power struggles, rebellion, and mounting tension. Outside, the rain threatens to overflow into a flood, while inside, pressing questions emerge: Do we rely on decisive leadership or collective solidarity? Which holds more sway: the lure of order or the strength of resistance?

TUSH attended the premiere of the play, directed by Guy Weizman with text by Maria Milisavljević. Ahead of the performance, TUSH visited the theater’s ateliers for an intimate glimpse into the world of costume design, capturing the pieces in an exclusive photo shoot. There, we spoke with costume designers Joris Suk (MAISON the FAUX) and Simon Carle about their creative journey, their exploration of couture in the context of theater, and how their costumes breathe life into the play’s profound and delicate themes.

TUSH: Within a play, costume design reflects not only the characters‘ personalities but also the broader themes of the piece. For “Hope”, how does your work reinforce or disrupt the characters?

Joris Suk und Simon Carle: Within this production we tried to help the characters quite literally, but also on a meta level. The performance is based on a “dance company” preparing for a new performance. So to help this narrative we explored and deconstructed archetypal ballet references, and created a day (rehearsal) to night (stage) wardrobe for them that helped the performers in their characterisation. On a meta level we created all these feather headpieces that represent the bigger system that they are trapped in. But the feathers also refer to the quote of Emily Dickinson “Hope is the thing with feathers.”

TUSH: “Hope” explores whether hope can only blossom in challenging times. How did you approach embodying hope, the absence of it or maybe even doubt in hope through your costume design?

Joris Suk und Simon Carle: The delusion within the rhinestone, the pink, the feathers and exaggerated silhouettes embody the attempt of not losing or holding on to our faith in hope. Which becomes in our eyes a very beautiful, touching, silly and very human gesture toward the characters that are fighting and defending their beliefs.

The stupidity of facing the all disrupting and destroying flood in a pink tutu becomes very funny but also very touching and recognisable at the same time.

TUSH: The play depicts society itself as a dystopia, with recurring battles for love, space, territory, power, and hope emerging as an ever-present form of resistance. With its poetic, trilingual resonance, in what way did you use fabrics, textures, colors, materials, and their weight to convey this layered complexity in the costume design?

Joris Suk und Simon Carle: We used the pink colour as a binding factor for the costumes and characters, within all the human disagreements we are more connected then we want to see sometimes (“We’re all made from flesh and bone” sort of thing). The huge amount of feathers give a symbolic reference to Hope itself. We also used a lot of Revue references, that in the 30’s and 40’s were places of resistance, where differences were celebrated and embraced.

TUSH: Your costume design for “Hope” is inspired by classical ballet, yet resists the polished perfection typical of classical ballet, it even has a streetwear vibe to it. Why was it important for you to show something more real and raw?

Joris Suk und Simon Carle: Within the fantastical language of ballet we felt the urgency to disrupt that perfection. To bring it back to some form of reality instead of leaving it floating in this unrealistic universe. The Clothes lived different lives before entering the stage, survived different floods already, and were still standing. Also the juxtaposition within these two languages was very exciting for us as designers.