An Audience With the Past

See characters, playbills and posters from the past 250 years side by side for the very first time

What initially started out as just one wall of artistically arranged posters has since become the the biggest artistic installation within our Heritage Lottery-funded project.

Delivered by local artist Emily Ketteringham, An Audience with the Past features characters from a wide selection of Bristol Old Vic productions, stretching across the horseshoe walls of our auditorium's Dress Circle, Upper Circle and Gallery. 

Wander at your leisure through the top three tiers of our auditorium to discover this vast collection of playbills and posters, adorned with real quotes from our archives (as well as those at Bristol Archives and the University of Bristol Theatre Collection); from show reports to reviews, to complaint letters the theatre has received.

Please note that this installation is unavailable during show times.