Ways of Seeing • Museum of East Dorset (2023)

An Inter-Active Multi-Media Show at the Museum of East Dorset, Wimborne, Dorset.

Ways of Seeing was the second production commissioned by Emma Ayling, previous Director of the Priest’s House Museum and Gardens (PHM), as part of the Museum’s Revival project. The first, Echoes of the Past, marked the closure in 2019 before renovations began and this current production was planned to mark the re-opening of the Museum following refurbishment. However, the pandemic and other plans delayed the project for almost three years.

For this project, in consultation with staff at MED, we chose and researched the following key items in the Collection: Valentine’s Cards, the fresco found in excavations at the Roman Villa at Tarrant Hinton in the late 1960s and the black and white portraits taken by the early Edwardian full plate studio camera over a period of forty years.

Watch a short snippet.

Mr Pottle’s photographic studio from Alastair Nisbet – ScreenPLAY on Vimeo.

Poster for Ways of Seeing • Museum of East Dorset

About the production

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‘Ways of Seeing’ was an imaginative attempt to go beneath the surface, to discover and share the stories that may lie beneath, reflecting lives in East Dorset over many years.

Chezzie Hollow, Director, Museum of East Dorset says ‘We’re thrilled to once again be working with Wimborne Community Theatre and our own Millstream Theatre group to create this new performance inspired by items in our collection. We are fortunate to have such professional creatives in our local community and are extremely grateful for all their hard work on this project. Our thanks go to the National Lottery Heritage Fund for funding the Revival Project which has enabled us to commission this piece.’

Friday, March 10, 7.30 pm; Saturday, March 11, 2.30 pm & 7.30 pm

Ways of Seeing was a joint production by Wimborne Community Theatre (WCT) and Millstream Theatre funded through the museum’s £1.6m revival project, supported by National Lottery funding awarded through the Heritage Lottery Fund (HLF)

Congratulations on a wonderful and a successful project. I thoroughly enjoyed myself and have such huge admiration for all the performers and everyone involved. It was a brilliant experience from an audience member's perspective and very much interactive with the several different characters coming to life in different areas of the museum. Since the performance and how it brought to light the history of Wimborne and the people who lived and worked in the area many many years ago, I will definitely be visiting the museum again to have a proper look around and go back in time so to speak.

Audience Member

Such a wonderful group of performers who are engaging in their ability to tell a story and very much draw you in as an audience. Can't fault it at all. In fact, I'd go and see it again if it was being put on again. So many possibilities that you can go down with immersive theatre like the Ways of Seeing at the Museum of East Dorset.

Wimborne resident