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Forkbeard at Christmas

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By Rosie Smith, Project Archivist: Forkbeard Fantasy

As you may remember from a previous blog, Forkbeard Fantasy were known for their use of elaborate and unusual props and costumes. After a successful touring exhibition of some of these items, they established the Museum of Forkbeard in North Devon. Visitors to the museum would be given a guided tour by one of the Forkbeards as they were shown the material on display.  

When we took in the Forkbeard Fantasy archive, the Theatre Collection wanted to preserve the essence of this museum. As well as making a 3D scan of the museum, we made many hours of oral history videos of Tim, Chris, Penny and Ed talking about the history of Forkbeard.  

These videos were an absolute godsend to me when I first started the cataloguing project and needed to learn about Forkbeard. But there was one clip in particular that made me realise that I was going to love this job, and that was Penny talking about one of Forkbeard’s Christmas productions, The Little Match Girl. The six-legged mashed potato had me crying with laughter! 

 

 

In 1997, Forkbeard were approached by Neil Bartlett of the Lyric Theatre in Hammersmith to ask if Forkbeard would be interested in working on their upcoming Christmas production, The Little Match Girl. Penny set to work designing and building the sets and costumes. The set designs for this show are some of the most beautiful items in the archive. Penny went all out to bring the atmosphere of a fairy tale to life, from the cold streets of Victorian London to a massive feast, and ending with a giant Christmas tree surrounded by a staircase.  

 

Meanwhile Tim and Chris took on various comedic roles, including angels, a knife and fork, a giant teddy bear, and many more. For these, they had to be squished into a variety of odd-shaped costumes. The knife and fork costumes required Chris and Tim to be pushed into long tube-shaped outfits that prevented them from moving their arms, before having a large headpiece placed on their heads. Sadly, while we have some great drawings of these costumes, no photographs remain in the archive. Tim also played the giant teddy bear. Here you can hear Penny explaining how the enormous costume worked. 

 

 


Unfortunately, the play didn’t sell particularly well. It was intended as a show for children, but that didn’t necessarily come across to the public and the audience was mainly adults. The story also had a sad ending, which wasn’t what the audience wanted from a Christmas show. Most importantly, it reminded Forkbeard of a lesson that they had first learnt back in 1985: that they much preferred touring shows and outdoor performances to “festering Greenrooms and 12 hellish weeks stuck in London.” Back on the road they went! 

In 2007, Forkbeard were commissioned to provide the “special effects and stuff” for a new adaptation of A Christmas Carol written by Simon Persighetti for the Brewhouse Theatre. Forkbeard kept the correspondence between themselves and Simon relating to this production, and it’s fascinating to see how their ideas developed. The Ghost of Christmas Present was supposed to reflect the overconsumption of food and the increase in food waste at Christmastime. While he started as a “Santa-like human”, he slowly morphed into a puppet sitting in a shopping trolley with a projected face. The knife and fork costumes from The Little Match Girl made a reappearance, as this time dancing across the stage with a giant turkey.  

However, it was the Ghost of Christmas Future that was a true Forkbeard special. Using a giant screen, they back projected a film of Scrooge dancing in shadow. They then had an actor behind the screen copy the movements to create a real shadow on the screen. Using Forkbeard’s technique of ‘Breaking the Celluloid Divide’, the actor then emerged through the screen, making it appear as though the ghost had emerged from Scrooge himself. It sounds fascinating and faintly disturbing!

As I’ve mentioned before on this blog, Forkbeard planned their shows in Daler notebooks. These notebooks are a mix of show ideas, script extracts, draft correspondence, funding applications, to do lists, shopping lists, poems and doodles…everything got written in these books! Flicking through them, you can tell when Christmas was approaching, as little doodles and poems of Santa start to appear. There are a series of doodles working out how Santa would deliver presents to an underwater house. There is a satirical cartoon in which the Arts Council attempts to prevent Santa from giving performers presents (that’s their job!). There’s even a drawing of Santa trying on Mrs Claus’ outfit. As far as I’m aware, Santa never actually appeared in any of Forkbeard’s productions. Maybe it was just a matter of time…

 

 

The Great Tape Bake Off

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Sticky tapes

One of the many challenges we face when digitising audiovisual material from magnetic tape is “sticky-shed syndrome”. Certain types or formulations of tape suffer from this problem that, as the name implies, causes them to literally stick to the components of the playback machine creating a phenomenon known as “stiction”. The friction of the sticky tape against the metal parts causes screeching/squealing noises and slowed/ uneven speed of tape playback. Sometimes the machine will slow down and grind to a halt. If you haven’t encountered this phenomenon before you could be forgiven for thinking it’s a fault on the player. Playback of sticky tapes can result in damage to the tape and in some cases, the playback equipment. The magnetic oxide material sheds from the tape resulting in a distorted signal and dropouts which compromise the quality of the digital transfer. Extreme sticky-shed can cause catastrophic damage to a tape and result in partial or complete loss of the often unique audiovisual material contained on that tape.

A magnetic tape which has been so affected by shedding that the oxide which holds the magnetic information (brown), has completely come away from the polyester base (clear) rendering the information unrecoverable. Picture by Anothermelbournite, Wikipedia

Ingredients

Magnetic tape consists of a plastic base layer (substrate), a layer of magnetic oxide or metal particle material (the brown stuff that contains the audiovisual signal) with lubricants and a binder which glues the oxide/metal particles to the base. Some tapes contain an additional back-coat on the base designed to lubricate the motion of the tape through the player and reduce friction.

Structure of magnetic tape, picture from https://publish.uwo.ca/~dspanner/LIS9670/lect11.htm

The problem of sticky-shed results from a breakdown in the binder resulting in hydrolysis i.e. absorption of water. The urethane molecules in the polyurethane binder react with the water, making them migrate to the surface of the tape where they cause the stickiness.

The issue is difficult to identify by visual inspection but suspect tapes should be tested before attempting playback by slowly turning the reel and observing whether the tape unspools naturally or sticks/lingers on the pack. Sometimes the tape surface can exhibit a soft/gummy quality. The problem of sticky tapes has become more apparent over the last 30 years as tape stock ages and patterns of binder breakdown have been identified. Certain brands manufactured entire batches of tape with a faulty binder formulation which almost invariably suffer from sticky-shed. This makes it easier to identify a tape that will have problematic playback before placing it in/on the machine.

Recipe

Thankfully, for most cases of sticky-shed there is a solution – “Baking” the tapes i.e. heating them gently for a period of a few hours. For this purpose, I use a food dehydrator as it is suitable for lower heating temperatures and maintaining them more consistently than a conventional oven. My ultimate goal is to obtain an incubator which operates at the most consistent temperatures over long periods but for now, the dehydrator does the job well. Any apparatus used should not contain strong magnetic fields which can damage the tape’s content. A digital thermometer allows easy and accurate temperature monitoring.

Food dehydrator used for “baking” tapes with sticky-shed syndrome

Baking at 54.4°C (130°F) is the sweet spot to temporarily reverse sticky-shed syndrome. The duration required varies for each format but should be at least 2-3 hours with tapes flipped once or twice then allowed to cool for at least the same length of time. Once baked, there is a short window of a few days to digitise before hydrolysis makes the tape sticky again. It’s wise to carry out the process during drier weather conditions as humidity in the air will speed up hydrolysis. A tape can however, be re-baked several times and this is often a requirement for some of the more stubborn formats anyway. As there isn’t 100% consistency of tape behaviour, it can be a case of trial and error – bake for the minimum time, manually test unspooling of tape and carefully attempt playback. If not successful, bake again and so on until the tape plays back correctly.

The main tapes to look out for are:

• Reel to reel audio tapes – Ampex/Quantegy (mid 1970s into the early 1990s) and Scotch/3M. Bake for 3-6 hours.

Ampex 1/4″ audio tape reel

• U-matic video tapes (1975-1985) by Ampex, AGFA and Sony – those affected often have a wax crayon type smell. The tape reels should be removed from the cassette shell for baking. Bake for 8-16 hours.

Sony U-matic video cassette

• EIAJ ½” open reel video tape – particularly Sony branded V60H, V62 and V30H Helical Scan. If the tape is back coated, it will require baking. These tapes often require long bake times, I have found that manually winding and cleaning with a lint-free cloth after baking can improve playback results. Bake for 8-16 hours, sometimes multiple bakes are required.

Sony 1/2″ video tape reels

• Quad 2” open reel video tape. We don’t currently have any of these in our archives but due to their large size they require extended baking times – up to 24 hours.

Other formats can occasionally suffer from sticky-shed too e.g. Betacam (oxide formulation), VHS, Hi8, even MiniDV.

If you are in doubt as to whether a given tape has sticky-shed syndrome it is much safer to bake it than play it.

Audio compact cassettes are an exception in that the faulty binder was not used in cassette formulations. However, some cassettes can suffer from stickiness due to fatty acids migrating to the surface of the tape. I have baked some notoriously sticky mid-1980s EMI cassettes for 2-4 hours with excellent results.

Slow cassette:

Baked cassette:

The Raw and the Cooked

Just to confuse things, some tapes can also suffer from a different type of Soft Binder Syndrome which can cause squealing on playback. These are often non back-coated tapes and leave less of a deposit on the playback path. It is not recommended to bake these as it can exacerbate the problem. Some success has been achieved by playing back this kind of tape in a cold environment, even placing a playback machine inside a refrigerator. Other tapes display a problem where the back-coat of the tape is turning to powder leaving a non-sticky accumulation of powder on the playback heads. These also shouldn’t be baked but cleaning will be necessary. Finally, never bake an acetate tape. These can be identified when held up to a bright light and visible light can be seen coming through the tape pack.

Despite these exceptions, the most common type of tape degradation you are ever likely to come across is sticky-shed syndrome.

It’s always worth that extra effort to ensure our AV material is preserved in its optimum form.
Happy Baking!

Nigel Bryant
Audiovisual Digitisation Officer

 

Critical Analysis of Oral History Practice Interviews

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Following Jan Wozniak’s  blog post in September 2024, students on this research unit have contributed a series of blogs on their experiences of learning about and creating oral histories.

 

Critical Analysis of Interview by Jan Wozniak with Lucy Hunt, Director of Engagement at Bristol Old Vic

By Unit students Naama, Nell and Lola

This blog recognises that most of these critical observations arose from the specific circumstances of classroom-based practice interviews and are unlikely to occur in typical oral history interviews.

The interview took place in our usual seminar room, a relatively large space that accommodates around 30 people. Under different circumstances, a smaller, more intimate setting would have been preferable for recording. Upon reviewing the recording, I noticed significant background noise, particularly the sound of passing police cars. Ideally, interviews should be conducted in a smaller, acoustically soft room without an audience, to minimise external sounds and distractions. The presence of laughter in the recording, for instance, may have influenced the interviewee’s responses or reactions. Furthermore, the recording was done on a basic camcorder without specialised audio equipment, which impacted the audio quality significantly. In retrospect, using microphones and high-quality recording devices would have enhanced clarity and reduced ambient noise interference.

Jan made a conscious effort to maintain strong eye contact with Lucy, which helped her feel engaged and listened to. He avoided crossing his arms – while a natural and comfortable position for many, it can sometimes convey a sense of closed-off body language. As an interviewer, it is important to remain mindful of one’s body language and how it might be perceived by the interviewee, as their perception can influence the openness of their reponses.

As the interview progressed, Jan noticed that Lucy appeared confident and secure in her responses, which allowed him to introduce more challenging questions. For example, when Lucy explained that the Young Company was divided by age groups, Jan questioned this and asked why the young people were separated into year groups as at school, when the goal is to distinguish this environment from traditional schooling. Lucy responded comfortably, demonstrating that she felt respected and that Jan’s questions were a product of active listening and critical engagement.

Finally, I observed that Jan began taking notes during the interview. This was likely a practical strategy to aid in post-interview debriefing, yet, as we are reflecting critically, it raised a potential issue. Note-taking during an interview could potentially affect the intervewee’s comfort, as they may become self-conscious about what is being noted versus what is not, leading them to question the perceived significance of their statements. This highlights the importance of considering how the interviewer’s actions may subtly influence the interviewee’s mindset and responses. As noted earlier, while the interviewer is actively perceiving and analysing the interviewee, the reverse is also true: the interviewee is reading and responding to the interviewer’s cues.

Personal Reflection of Student Interview with Lisa Gregan, Director of the Bristol Old Vic Young Company

After Jan completed the interview with Lucy, he opened up the next interview with Lisa Gregan to the rest of the class. I nervously raised my hand, thinking someone else would too. They didn’t of course, so 10 minutes later there I was with Lisa, conducting an interview. Scary stuff!

It helped that Jan had gone first; I was able to take inspiration from his style and questions, as I had none prepared. I tried to maintain open body language, show active listening through eye contact and verbal recognition, and asked follow-up questions where it seemed right.

I realised as I sat there panicking about what to ask next, that it didn’t actually matter. The point was never to be the most interesting interviewer, rather to help and facilitate the most interesting interviewee! This change in my understanding allowed me to relax and truly, deeply listen to Lisa, which resulted in far better questions and a more comfortable environment for Lisa.

World Digital Preservation Day: Reflecting on a Year of Digital Archiving

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Lori Stirland-Legret, Digital Archive Assistant, reflects on the last year of digital activities in Special Collections and Theatre Collection for this year’s World Digital Preservation Day.

Today is the first Thursday of November, meaning it’s World Digital Preservation Day 2024! This is a day to celebrate all things relating to digital preservation, and this year’s theme is ‘Preserving Our Digital Content: Celebrating Communities’. It has also been almost exactly a year since I started working as Digital Archive Assistant for Special Collections and Theatre Collection, so it seemed like a good time to reflect on the work I’ve been doing, as well as the importance of digitally preserving our collections.

One of the main tasks that I’ve undertaken is creating a Digital Asset Register to keep information about all of our digital collections in one place. It contains high level information such as how much storage space each collection takes up, and the types of digital files they contain. With a Digital Asset Register, we can get a better idea of which collections to prioritise to make accessible for users.

Making a Digital Asset Register sounds easy until you consider that Special Collections has over 40 terabytes and Theatre Collection has over 50 terabytes of digital content. To put it into perspective, the average laptop usually has a capacity of around 500 gigabytes of storage – meaning it would take almost 200 normal laptops to hold all of our digital materials! Luckily, we have access to a large amount of network storage as well as Preservica, our digital asset management system.

I’ve also been able to do a lot of work on creating online exhibitions for Special Collections and Theatre Collection. Most recently, in October the Cultural Collections Black History Month online exhibition went live. Working on these has given me a lot of perspective on the amount of work from everyone that goes into making collections accessible: from selecting suitable materials, digitising copies, and doing all the technical coding. However, it feels very satisfying to finally create a finished product which anyone can access from their mobile phone in the palm of their hand! It’s currently still online, so be sure to check it out if you haven’t already.

Cultural Collections’ Black History Month online exhibition. Image shows playwright Winsome Pinnock (left) with director Hettie McDonald. Theatre Collection (ref WPT/1/1/2/2/9/1)

Looking forward, over the next year one of our main goals is to get more content into Preservica and accessible to users, ensuring our digital collections are as protected and accessible as possible. In the same way that you can put a book at the back of a pile and then forget about it, digital files can be hidden away in folders on old computers only to be lost. Physical archives are vulnerable to a number of real-life disasters, and whilst digital archives have their own vulnerabilities, taking a multifaceted approach gives our records the best chance of surviving for as long as possible.

Performing the Constitution: 19th Century Productions of Shakespeare’s King John, by Ruth Houghton (Newcastle Law School)

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Researcher Ruth Houghton visited the Theatre Collection in 2023 to examine the Herbert Beerbohm Tree Business Archive. This blog highlights her reading room discoveries around Tree’s 1899-1900 production of King John, which have led to her 2024 article, published in the journal Law and Humanities (full details below).

 

King John is probably best known for sealing Magna Carta in 1215. Yet, this significant event in the constitutional history of Great Britain does not feature in Shakespeare’s play The Life and Death of King John; a fact that has preoccupied both literary and historical scholars. In contrast, 19th century productions of the play were littered with references to the Charter. From discussions in the programmes of the events at Runnymede to insertions into the very text of the play about the rights and liberties protected by Magna Carta, theatre producers across the century were reimagining the role of the Charter within the play.

No-one does this more spectacularly than Herbert Beerbohm Tree. In his 1899 production of King John at Her Majesty’s Theatre in London (which incidentally would go on to be the first filmed recording of a Shakespeare production), Beerbohm Tree staged a magnificent tableau – or living picture – depicting ‘The Granting of Magna Charta’.

HBT/40/1 Souvenir programme for King John at Her Majesty’s Theatre, 20 September 1899.

The tableau is often assumed to be silent, a ‘dumb-show’, which scholars have argued facilitated an a-political representation of Magna Carta as it allowed Beerbohm Tree to display the historical moment of the sealing of the Charter without praise or blame. (source: J. M. Lander and J. J. M. Tobin (eds) The Arden Shakespeare: King John (3rd edn, Bloomsbury 2018), p.102.)

However, documents in the Herbert Beerbohm Tree Business Archive give insight into the specific sounds and movements that accompanied the scene.

In the Stage [rehearsal] Notes of the tableau from the 13th September 1899, it states:

‘Super is holding document, puts it on table in front of JOHN, points to it for JOHN’S signature. After John has put his hand to the seal – inspiring music – then shout from everyone onstage.’

HBT/40/44 Stage Notes for King John at Her Majesty’s Theatre 1899-1900.

However, the Property Plot (undated but presumably created separately on a different day), details minor alterations that give an alternative approach to the scene:

‘Document is on table – Mr Tree [as King John] enters, goes towards table, man takes up document, gives it to Mr Tree, who reads it, looks round at Nobles, puts down the document, looks around again, then puts finger on paper – Music changes to ‘joyous rainbow’ strain – Mr Tree gives paper back to man – Loud cheers.’

HBT/40/13 Property Plot for King John at Her Majesty’s Theatre, 1899-1900.

The archive here uncovers a more complicated representation of the constitutional significance of the Charter. On 13th September, the pointing for a signature could be constructed as a visual representation of John being asked to submit, reluctantly, to the demand of the barons. In contrast, the longer stage direction of HBT/40/13 has the additional ‘gives paper back’, which is evocative of the idea that John gives the charter (almost magnanimously) to the people. Indeed, the ‘cheers’ in this rehearsal happen when the people are in possession of the Charter.

These two versions of the tableau found in the archives present distinct constitutional readings. Whilst one exaggerates the symbolism of the Charter as an act of holding a sovereign to account, the other places emphasis on the idea that the people now possess rights and liberties. These notes therefore offer a fascinating insight into how representations of Magna Carta in 19th century productions of King John can shed light on the perception and development of the Charter’s constitutional status during this period.

The Herbert Beerbohm Tree Business Archive is housed in the University of Bristol Theatre Collection.

This research has been published in Houghton, R. (2024). ‘Performing a constitution: a history of Magna Carta in Shakespeare’s King John’. Law and Humanities, 1–30. https://doi.org/10.1080/17521483.2024.2370673.