Eshtemoa costume worn by Marion Sauer, Jonah and the Whale 

This dress is among the oldest of the Performing Arts Collection’s drama costumes. It was worn by Marion Sauer as Eshtemoa, ‘a leading citizeness of Nineveh’ in WEA Little Theatre’s 1939 production of James Bridie’s Jonah and the Whale.

 Of the play’s costuming, the News wrote, ‘The costuming will be particularly effective for the producers are using simple settings wherever possible and concentrating on dressing which will range from the sack cloth of the village to the vivid colouring in the dresses of the society women of the wicked city of Nineveh.’

Quote: News, Saturday 11 March 1939, p6, retrieved from Trove, National Library of Australia