Spectators watch, listen, feel; through their imagination, the work of the performer is transformed. For each spectator, the experience is different, influenced by many things - understanding, knowledge, previous experience, mood.

Everyone is a spectator. In Performance Gallery, objects from the collections can evoke different memories and ideas about this personal act of observing, absorbing, applauding, transforming a performance.

Let these objects remind you about being a spectator:

Place and people

	Dr Syntax at Covent Garden Theatre, Thomas Rowlandson, 1817, F201000.

An audience is individuals joined by laughter or tears.

This print makes you part of the early 19th century audience at Covent Garden Theatre. You join Dr Syntax, a popular 19th century fictional character.

The space where a performance happens determines the relationship between performer and audience. In the theatrical tradition of the West, as spectator you usually observe from a safe distance; in Egúngún mask performance in Nigeria, you join the moving crowd, following the Egúngún, sometimes being chased.

Wonders of the world

	Model menagerie UK, c.1830, HW1220

Travelling circuses, fairs and shows can bring performing wonders from around the world to your doorstep.

Through time, the range of performances available has been driven by the need to please a crowd, to bring them new ideas and experiences. Popular shows and theatres of the 19th century demonstrate just that hunger for the new - the demand for fresh sights and sounds from around the world which fuelled displays of exotic animals - and people.

Menageries were collections of exotic animals that people came to marvel at. Travelling menageries toured provincial towns and villages and were extremely popular attractions at holidays and fairs. By the end of the 18th century, one catalogue boasted that there were "Lions, Tygers, Elephants &c in Every Street in Town."

Global audiences

	Lion dance at the mansion in Spring, Utagawa Kuniaki c.1850, F208037

In Britain today we can share in the benevolent spirits and good fortune that Dragon and Lion dances bring.

These seasonal New Year dances have been transported across continents and centuries from origins in China. They evolved from the religious rituals of the aristocracy to vibrant parades on the streets of every capital city.

Souvenirs and memories

	Cinema and theatre programmes, Brighton 1891,1947, 1994, (DB644, DB701, AH106483)

When the show is over, a souvenir of the performance can take you back there.

Programmes set the scene and prepare you for what you are about to see. They let you place a familiar face or keep up with a fast-paced plot, act by act or scene by scene.

When the curtain falls, programmes are redundant but many are kept as mementoes of the evening and the performance.

Seeing, being seen

	Opera glasses, France, c.1900, A300347

The success of each performance rests on a lifetime of preparation.

Theatre is the place to see and be seen. With these glasses everything comes into focus.

Many seats in the theatre are far away from the stage. Opera glasses bring the stage to the distant spectator. Far-away performing figures with loud projecting voices can suddenly become larger than life.