Twee fotoreproducties van tekeningen, voorstellende inspiciënt Brehms spreekt acteurs toe 1890

Curator: Ah, these feel like studies, like quick sketches from the theatre wing capturing the magic and mayhem just before the curtain rises! Editor: Indeed. These are photographic reproductions of drawings by F.A. Dahlström, dating back to 1890, titled "Twee fotoreproducties van tekeningen, voorstellende inspiciënt Brehms spreekt acteurs toe," which roughly translates to "Two photo reproductions of drawings, depicting Brehm addressing actors." We see theatre director Brehm in action, rehearsing actors. They are pencil and graphite works, possessing a captivating narrative quality. Curator: Narrative is right. Look at the top drawing! He's holding his script, hand raised in some kind of grand gesture. I bet he's chewing them out something fierce. And that huddle of actors in the back! All eyes glued to the boss. Their elaborate costumes just hanging there...waiting to burst into life. Editor: These were, of course, the days before mass media. Theater was a public sphere, shaping values, morals, and even political discourse. It provided spaces for the consolidation and contestation of ideas. So seeing the director here in this rather authoritarian pose, is in some ways him taking command of those debates. Curator: He's got that intense creative energy! It must've been electric in those rehearsals. You feel it, even now, peeking into the wings 130 years later. Editor: What's fascinating to me is that they opted for photographic reproductions. These were made available to a broader public outside theatre. It reflects a democratisation of knowledge of performance and how society consumed performative representation. It certainly was one of the driving forces of modernity. Curator: It makes it immediate! Like seeing something in the corner of your eye, but then having to ask yourself “Did that really happen?" You could miss some of that fleeting, backstage tension if the play’s got you glued to your seat! But these drawings pull the scene to us, into real life. Editor: In viewing art as being inseparable from the institutional spaces in which it functions, works like this really challenge our preconceived notions around how theatre and broader public spheres relate and how knowledge flows across their boundaries. Curator: Exactly. It makes us consider the playfulness, but also the authority in creating art, doesn't it? Editor: And that tension perhaps always lingers backstage, just waiting for the curtain to drop.