In 1992 the very first production was recorded for the National Video Archive of Performance – known generally as NVAP. With over 400 high-quality live performance recordings, this ever-expanding archive has been made possible due a unique agreement between the Federation of Entertainment Unions and the V&A Theatre and Performance collections, enabling us to make these recordings freely available to view in the V&A Study Rooms.
This first recording was of Richard III starring Sir Ian McKellen on 26 May 1992 at Lyttleton, National Theatre, London, with a running time of 3hrs 6mins – 5 minutes longer than Avengers: Endgame!
The aim of NVAP was to capture the performance as it would be seen by a member of the audience, coughs, sneezes and the rustling of sweet wrappers included.
These recordings were originally made available to be watched by individuals in the Study Room at the Theatre Museum in Covent Garden. Viewing took place using screens which were a little larger than a portable television with a SVHS VCR attached and a pair of headphones. The old study room was a little like a cellar bar with low lighting – ideal for watching recordings of theatrical performance. Over the next few years SVHS was replaced by the more readily available VHS, meaning that standard players could be purchased to replace the older machines, and better cameras became available, raising the quality of the recordings.
In the late spring of 2005, the Theatre Museum’s archives relocated to Blythe House in west London, where we gained a room dedicated to NVAP viewings, where the laughter and occasional sing-a-long was slightly less of an issue. It was also at this time that we began to introduce DVDs as a method of delivery alongside VHS.
The archivist at that time had a dream of introducing a video ‘jukebox’, where the researcher could select the NVAP of their choice without the need for an archive assistant to have to run up and down the stairs to provide either tape or disc, but alas that lofty idea was beyond our capabilities – YouTube and Netflix were both in their infancy – and so it was that we continued to get our steps in.
The most popular recording at that time was the 2004 production of Hamlet starring Ben Whishaw which had people travelling from all over the world watch it.
But there were changes ahead. The V&A Collections stores were moving to a new home in Stratford East London, and there had been many changes to how we worked.
With the evolution of technology, NVAP was now being stored digitally, prompting our current archivist to ask – is there a way to deliver these recordings to in person visitors in a digital format? The answer was ‘yes a site could be built’, and so it was that work began to create a public portal that would allow researchers to access recordings from a dedicated terminal in the National Art Library and also at V&A East Storehouse when it opens in the summer of 2025.
Since the launch of the NVAP Player last year, Jez Butterworth’s Jerusalem starring Sir Mark Rylance has taken the lead as the most requested recording.
Appointments to view NVAP recordings in the National Art Library are now available to book and we look forward to sharing this fantastic collection with more visitors.
The list of all available recordings can be found here: V&A Archives
To make an appointment please email: archive@vam.ac.uk
All images from NVAP recordings are copyright © Trustees of the Victoria and Albert Museum/Federation of Entertainment Unions.
