In and out of ‘earsight’ Listening to historical theatre sound recordings

This article sets out to explore theatre sound historically by engaging with archival recordings of theatre performances captured in a specific Dutch theatre collection. The usefulness, or aesthetic value, of these recordings for theatre historians has not been systematically explored before. This article examines historical conceptions of sound, both in theatre as well as in the documentary archival format. Departing from Mladen Ovadija’s concept of the dramaturgy of sound, it combines observations regarding the aesthetic organization of performances with source-critical considerations. This article raises questions about archival research of theatre sound through the discussion of two production recordings: a 1966 production of Lewis Carlino’s Telemachus Clay and a 1970 production of De Spaanse Hoer by the group Zuidelijk Toneel.