University of Bristol throws a dinner party

The University of Bristol Theatre Collection collaborated with performance artist Tom Marshman to bring the Oliver Messel Archive to life through dinner party performances in unusual locations. Gemma Brace, Exhibition and Engagement Officer, tells us more.

The University of Bristol Theatre Collection was founded in 1951 to serve the UK’s first university drama department. It has since grown to become one of the largest and most significant collections in the world relating to the history of British theatre and live art. It includes the personal archive of one of the 20^th century’s brightest theatrical stars, Oliver Messel.

Traditional audiences to the Oliver Messel Archive include international scholars, students and family historians. The University of Bristol’s Theatre Collection applied for National Lottery Project Grants funding to develop a series of events with artist Tom Marshman. The project opened up the archive through creative interpretation and performance, making it more public facing and enabling a cross-fertilisation of different types of visitors, particularly those from the city’s vibrant contemporary theatre scene.

“One of the reasons we were keen to work with Tom is his ability as a writer and performer to develop work that removes traditional barriers. There is an intimacy and openness to his delivery, which draws people in, and we felt strongly that this would resonate with audiences, many of whom were new to performance art.”

The project began with an open brief to produce a piece of work in response to the Oliver Messel Archive, and after undertaking initial research Marshman decided to develop focus his performances around the premise of a dinner party.

“Oliver Messel and his partner Vagn Riis-Hansen loved to entertain, and the Archive contains photographs, menus, telegrams and letters revealing various details of their lavish dinner parties. Tom was keen to find a way to bring these stories and conversations to life by creating his own imaginary version of one these dinners, using the material in the Archive as the basis of his performance.”

The performances were all free and held in a number of diverse venues, including a historic mansion and a community cultural centre. All factors which helped break down some traditional barriers to engagement, by bringing the content off-site and into the city. Visitors were able to explore the stories in more detail after the performances, talking to Tom and reading the facsimiles for themselves, which helped them really connect the show they’d experienced to the physical materials contained in the Archive.

“The notion of taking words and images from the Archive and bringing them to life through speech and movement is an incredibly powerful form of communication and led to a much deeper level of engagement with the whole exhibition.”

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“Leave enough time for ideas to grow organically. We had given the project a great deal of thought before applying, however, we had quite a quick turnaround time between funding confirmation and the first performance dates. It would have been helpful to allow ourselves more space within our schedule between the funding decision and the research and development period in order to fully incorporate new ideas that arose.”

Thinking of applying?