You know what to expect when people want to wave something about in a flirty Restoration comedy. Fan? Check. Snuff box? Check. Dagger. Wait, what? The Double Dealer is a young writer’s comedy that springily reinvents the rules. Restoration comedies are often tales of love and money, set in a contemporary London so precisely plotted that you could follow the action on Google Maps. But William … [Read more...]
Propwatch: the fans in The Way of the World
There’s no limit to how much bad acting you can do with a fan, if you’re in a folderol frame of mind. Point it for emphasis, snap it shut in high dudgeon. Make peekaboo eyes over the top or flutter it for the full coquette. It can easily become camp. Anyone who doesn’t enjoy costume drama onstage will be no fan of the fan. But it doesn’t have to be this way. Most of the props that sashay into … [Read more...]