Bristol Old Vic launches Pillars of the Past project

The 1965 production of Cleo, featuring Jane Asher and Company, has become part of the project

Famous faces and iconic scenes from Bristol Old Vic productions have been transformed in a new digitised projection.

Pillars of the Past features more than 250 images and clips from at least 60 shows, has been created and installed by Limbic Cinema.

Bristol Old Vic said it serves as a reminder of where they came from and what the theatre has lived through.

The installation is projected in the foyer, above the bar, each night.

“Now that a lot of our performances are taking place in the foyer, it’s a really lovely way of highlighting all the productions and people that have been with us during our most theatrical times,” a theatre spokeswoman said.

Tara Fitzgerald, left, from the production A Streetcar Named Desire in 2000 and Patricia Hodge, from the same show in 1989

Richard Pasco, left, featured in Henry V and Tim West, right, in part one of Henry IV in 1972

The project has been developed in collaboration with the University of Bristol Theatre Collection, “giving us greater and easier access to our theatre’s past”, she added.

Thom Buttery, creative director at Limbic Cinema, added: “Bristol Old Vic had this huge wealth of archive material, photos and videos, that they wanted to display as a way of making the foyer space more interesting.

A production of Miss Ever’s Boys in 1998

Production images from Sparks Theatre Company are part of Limbic Cinema's Pillars of the Past project

“They put together a play list and lighting design, to make this immersive and atmospheric state in the bar and restaurant area, which takes into account the volume and atmosphere that needs to occur for people to be able to enjoy the space, within Covid-limitations, so it’s quite a subtle, back ground atmosphere.”

Enyi Okoronkwo performed in the 2018 production of The Cherry Orchard