V&A to screen West End shows for free during performance festival

The V&A has announced plans for its Performance Festival, this year themed ‘remastered,’ offering a ten-day programme celebrating theatre and performance.

Featuring talks, tours, screenings, workshops, and more, ‘Remastered’ explores the concept of transformation, from reinvention to reimagining the past and inspiring the future. Taking place annually around Shakespeare’s birthday on 23 April, attendees will encounter leading practitioners from across the performing arts.

Highlights of the festival include the famed Red Ladies from Clod Ensemble, who will stage a theatrical demonstration in the V&A’s Raphael Gallery, alongside spontaneous solo performances throughout the building. Dance company Thick and Tight will present Unearthly, a new performance exploring the color blue in the V&A’s collection through a queer lens. Additionally, Bowers & Wilkins will create an interactive installation inspired by Abbey Road Studios sound equipment, allowing visitors to listen to favorite albums on the mastering hardware.

There will also be free screenings from the National Video Archive of Performance feature groundbreaking performances, including an all-female production of Julius Caesar (Donmar Warehouse, 2013) featuring Harriet Walter, two interpretations of Caryl Churchill’s play A Number (including the original show featuring Michael Gambon and Daniel Craig, as well as the recent Old Vic revival with Paapa Essiedu and Lennie James), an interactive family-friendly screening of The Tiger Who Came to Tea, Arinzé Kene’s Misty, the award-winning revival of Accidental Death of an Anarchist, the Donmar Warehouse production of Berberian Sound Studio. 

Workshops and talks cover puppetry, life-drawing, songwriting, South Asian theatre, Shakespeare, and Harry Styles’ iconic JW Anderson cardigan. The festival also includes a special Friday Late event, Beyond Feminism, examining the next waves of feminism through a performance lens.

In 1924, the V&A received a donation of over 80,000 Playbills, programs, and ephemera from Gabrielle Enthoven, marking the beginning of its Theatre and Performance collections. To honour this centenary, the Theatre and Performance galleries will feature a special display, “Enthoven Unboxed: 100 Years of Collecting Performance” opening this summer alongside a newly refreshed permanent gallery space.

The venue has stated that any slated performance screenings may be subject to change.