A new exhibition at the National Library of Australia shows our love of performance through the ages

Not a legal contract, or an official letter, or a birth certificate or a piece of printed money, but a poster announcing a performance of Jane Shore, The Wapping Landlady and The Miraculous Cure at the Theatre, Sydney, July 1796.

The show it advertises was likely much-anticipated, a welcome sign of culture and community for the early inhabitants of the colony. Eking out a new life in a wild outpost, putting on a show was a welcome sign of civilisation, whatever that meant.

And it was special enough for someone to have kept the playbill as a memento, one that would eventually make its way, centuries later, into the National Library of Australia's vast performing arts collections.

This tiny, seemingly innocuous but oh-so-precious piece of ephemera will be on display in a new exhibition of the collections, which include photographs, programs, posters, photographs, playbills, sheet music, costume designs, set designs, rare books and objects that speak to our love of performance.

From Shakespearean actors to iconic rock shows, glimpses behind the curtain and reminders of the thrill of being in the audience, it's the perfect show to ease us back into life in a city no longer in lockdown.

When theatres are closed, you know it's bad. And when they re-open, it's as good a sign as any that life is returning.

The show is a reminder of all the ways the performing arts have sustained us over the decades, with many of the objects showing healthy signs of the wear and tear that comes with the territory. Posters tacked on walls, dog-eared programs folded away, faded tassels, sepia images and tape - lots of tape.

Library conservator Freya Merrell is particularly taken by a tiny, perfectly rendered maquette of an early production of Swan Lake. From the front, the object is a beauty. From behind, it's a slapdash mess, the perfect metaphor for the contrast between treading the boards and hauling the sets.

"It's just so glamorous when you look at it, and you can see that fine detail that's gone into it," she says.

"It looks so beautiful in the front, and then you walk around the showcase and see from the back, there's just tape everywhere and it's just been slapped together ... It's just got scribbles everywhere - a real working set design, which is just how it is."

There's an energy, she says, to working with older objects that have obviously seen some life. A conservator's job is not to obscure that life, but to maintain the wear and tear as much as possible.

"We've worked really hard with the curator to ensure that we weren't overstepping in making everything beautiful again - it is beautiful in its current form," she says.

And, as is often the case, the older the item, the better it has held up while in storage.

It's the old-school craftsmanship and durable materials that has meant they can be saved.

"We wanted to make items that look used and worn and they have a story to tell without looking a certain way," Merrell says.

It's a way, she says, of connecting us to the people who, in a different time, went to shows, recitals, plays, performances, and found nourishment in them.

On Stage: Spotlight On Our Performing Arts opens at the National Library of Australia on March 4 and runs until August 7. Entry is free. nla.gov.au.