The Art of Innovation: Experiencing Nineteenth Century Theatre and Performance

Autumn-Winter 2021

In the nineteenth century, theatre and performance satisfied the public thirst for novelty and sensation through highly innovative practices and inventions. These were colourful, exciting and spectacular. As a vital part of a wider innovative popular entertainment landscape, theatre drew on technological advancements and adapted developments used in other popular entertainment forms to appear new.

Much of this technological innovation was pioneered in popular performance such as melodrama, pantomime and circus. The introduction of gas, in particular, made lighting more controllable, allowed darker colours to be seen effectively. Gas brightened the middle of the stage, creating intense illusions through theatrical technologies such as stage traps.

We invite you to imagine yourself as an audience member through the objects on display: to consider yourself as part of an active theatrical culture that extended performance beyond the theatre, to view colourful popular designs as art. There are strong similarities between the nineteenth century visual revolution and our own digital revolution. The nineteenth century visual entertainment landscape comprised optical toys, painted panoramas, and developments in printing that influenced posters, the illustrated press and periodical publishing. Our own digital revolution centres on digital screens and we invite you to use your own screens to look again, differently, at the objects presented in this exhibition.

This exhibition is one of two curated by the AHRC funded Theatre and Visual Culture in the Long Nineteenth Century project. It is linked to an exhibition at the Bill Douglas Museum entitled Transporting and Evolving Views: Nineteenth Century Ways of Seeing, running from Friday 13 August 2021.

To see more and access the catalogue please follow the link: https://theatreandvisualculture19.wordpress.com/university-of-bristol-theatre-collection-display/