Collecting STAGE DESIGN

Whether you're off to the panto or the ballet, 'tis the season to see a show. Set and costume designs offer a rare behind-the-curtain glimpse into the magic of the theatre

- By Emma Longstaff

Today, almost all performances can be digitally preserved. Go to a concert – Taylor Swift, Tom Jones or Bon Jovi – and most of the audience will be recording the experience on their phones. Plays, operas and ballets are streamed from top London theatres to cinemas nationwide. In the run-up to Christmas, nativities and school shows are eagerly filmed by proud parents, and then archived in the cloud, possibly forever.

In the past, a theatre performance existed only in the moment it was staged. When the final curtain fell and the audience went home, the experience was gone. A script might be reused, the production mounted with a different director, but a show could never be exactly recreated. It lingered only in memory.

Costume and set designs appeal to collectors partly because they provide a link to these lost, unrecorded performances, thinks art dealer Sarah Colegrave. 'All we might have left are things that weren't designed to be kept hold of – posters, ticket stubs, and working designs for the stage.'