Rosmersholm, a desirable 19th century mansion has unexpectedly come on the market, following recent… events. Impeccably designed, it would suit a miserable man of the cloth or a radical thinker struggling with doubt and desire. Full disclosure: there is a slight problem with damp. Dimensions It’s big. Very big. We like to describe it as ‘size of a West End stage’-type big. Buyers will find … [Read more...]
Change the dance, change the world
Bob Fosse and Jerome Robbins: two geniuses who sound as horrible to work with as they were inspiring to watch. Two artists whose choreography is tightly locked into the DNA of the silver-plated shows they helped create. Unpicking their movement from those landmark Manhattan musicals is tough – Robbins’ West Side Story gangboys who stake a leaping, finger-clicking claim on the streets; Fosse’s … [Read more...]
Propwatch: the poppet in The Crucible
Last night, as a cat nestled in the crook of my arm and its paws rasped happily over my fingers, I thought: I’m just a step away from a 17th-century witch trial. None of my neighbours in this part of London has an ailing pig or a crop prone to blight, praise be. But we all have our sorrows, and all need a way to explain them too ourselves. A cat and a pact with the devil are as good as … [Read more...]
Propwatch: the glasses in A German Life
Maggie Smith clutches a pair of glasses throughout her 100-minute monologue in A German Life. She holds them in her right hand mostly, but never puts them on: they’re more decoy than accessory. As Brunhilde Pomsel – who worked as a secretary to Goebbels during the war, and whose reminiscences are the basis of this play by Christopher Hampton – Smith feints and dithers, quavers around remorse and … [Read more...]
Propwatch: the mirror in Richard II
Richard II hands over the crown to a usurper, and the now-deposed monarch asks for a mirror. ‘That it may show me what a face I have.’ In the new production at the Sam Wanamaker Playhouse at the Globe, the glass is a rectangle, size of an i-pad. Richard takes it in both hands and looks, long and hard. What face does Richard see? Not, as in virtually any previous production, the face of a white … [Read more...]
Propwatch: the tooth in Dinomania
It’s not a real iguanodon tooth, I don’t think. Though in a story about how to interpret the material world and humanity’s place within it, identification is an unusually fraught subject. Dinomania by Kandinsky at New Diorama is a brilliantly theatrical tour of the fossil frenzy and dino debates of the mid-19th century. A project of deep research and wanton invention, of feeling and flair, it’s … [Read more...]
Propwatch: the hoof pick in Equus
The most fascinating tool on the Swiss army knife was surely the curved implement designed for scraping stones out of horses’ hooves. Undeniably practical yet destined to sulk unused in most urban lives. Except in Peter Shaffer’s Equus, where it gleams forth to hideous effect. Ned Bennett’s galvanic production for English Touring Theatre and Stratford East sets it at the time of the 1973 … [Read more...]
Propwatch: the feather boa in Follies
Solange LaFitte is mooching backstage at the dilapidated New York theatre. Everyone has arrived at the Weismann follies reunion party, revisiting the venue where they were once the dazzling epitome of showgirl glamour. They’ve all grabbed a drink, squealed at long lost buddies and curled a lip at long-grudged rivals. Stephen Sondheim’s musical Follies (directed by Dominic Cooke at London's … [Read more...]
Propwatch: the celery in Berberian Sound Studio
Some props have extended stage careers. Swords debut shiny and new in Romeo and Juliet and keep clattering away until they’re finally battered to bits in Coriolanus. Tankards roll sturdily from Henry IV to A Chaste Maid in Cheapside. Others? One night and you’re over. That’s showbiz, baby. In Berberian Sound Studio at London's Donmar, the celery and carrot, the cabbage and water melons, all … [Read more...]
Propwatch: the strap-on in When We Have Sufficiently Tortured Each Other
12 variations on a prop 1 garage There is stuff you expect to find in a garage. A car (an Audi, registration FE13 MXP). Metal shelving, peg board. Strip lighting that tints everything stark and queasy. A toolbox. Gaffer tape. An Amazon delivery box (there’s always a swoosh-marked Amazon box). They’re all here in Vicki Mortimer’s design. There’s also a strap-on. 2 set-up The plot of … [Read more...]