Dressing up as Snow White, talking to the ghost of Hamlet's dad and making the wind howl are just some of the theatrical tricks visitors can try at an interactive exhibition.

Stagestruck at Brighton Museum in the Pavilion Gardens is open until September 2 and looks at 200 years of Theatre Royal Brighton - charting its history from when it opened in 1807 on land purchased from George, Prince of Wales.

Its aim is to celebrate the theatre in its landmark birthday year as well as the people who have made it work, and the drama and spectacles that have filled its stage.

In the first two galleries there are vintage prints, playbills and photographs of stars who performed there including Laurence Olivier, Vivien Leigh and John Gielgud. There are also audio interviews with all types of staff from wardrobe dressers to scenery haulers and costumes and props actually worn and used on the stage.

The third gallery is mainly taken up with an interactive stage themed around the New Road venue's first ever performance - Hamlet starring Charles Kemble.

A tiny slice of the play can be acted out as the backdrop scenery fluctuates from a party inside the castle to a stormy moonlight battlement where the famous ghost appears.

Music, a storm and even clapping sounds also mark the different stages of the mini-play and visitors can join in by speaking Hamlet's lines from an on-stage script.

They can also use reconstructions of 19th century 'special effects' to make storm sounds from a thunder run, wind machine and gravel path and children can delve into a fancy dress box in the mirrored 'dressing-room' to really get into their parts.

Exhibitions manager Mary Goody said: "The idea is to get people watching the exhibition more involved, give them some flavour of what the theatre was like 200 years ago and show them how it has changed over the years.

"I think the theatre is a very rare, beautiful space and I hope people will discover a few things they did not know about it at the exhibition. We hope they get a real sense of the theatre's unusual history and dramatic characters."

Joe Dilnot, ten, from Downs Junior School in Rugby Road, Brighton, talked to The Argus when he visited the museum. He said he liked drama and had even performed on stage before so it was interesting for him to see the interactive special effects which showed how different theatre had been in the past.

He said: "I found out how to make thunder and I heard a rain machine which actually sounds like water.

"My favourite was the wind machine because it really sounds like the howling wind.

"It was good to try them myself."

John Kennett, 74, from Southover High Street, Lewes, has been a regular at Theatre Royal Brighton for many years and was interested to learn a little more about its history.

He said: "I think it is very good, especially the animated parts such as the video showing the scene changes.

"I think it is important to have a feeling of what goes on behind the scenes which you are not always aware of as an audience.

"It is a very glamorous sort of life on the surface but is more seedy when you peek behind the scenes - which I find fascinating."

To see a video report about the exhibition log onto the video section of our website.