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Performance Monkey

David Jays on theatre and dance

Propwatch: the climbing tackle in Touching the Void

November 24, 2019 by David Jays Leave a Comment

How do you capture the scale, the struggle, the elemental extremity of mountain climbing? In the theatre? It’s simpler than you think. After all, they both use the same kit. Touching the Void is based on the true story of two young Brits attempting to scale a never-scaled face of the Siula Grande mountain in the Peruvian Andes. David Greig's adaptation has found its purest home in old … [Read more...]

Propwatch: the jukebox in ‘Master Harold’… and the boys

November 18, 2019 by David Jays Leave a Comment

A jukebox offers choice upon choice. Dozens of records, stacked and ready for selection. Nestling between the palm court quartet and the corporate playlist, jukeboxes soundtracked café culture. Before the walkman, spotify and sodcasting, they let you decide your own mood music. Public yet personal, sweetly selfish – the jukebox flourished in the 1950s, the decade in which ‘Master Harold’… and the … [Read more...]

Propwatch: the invisible magnets in Little Baby Jesus

November 6, 2019 by David Jays Leave a Comment

Most props, most props, you could hold them in your hand. A suitcase. A tooth. A (shudders) doll. They’re part of the pleasure of theatre, the imagination made palpable. But sometimes, sometimes they stay imaginary. In the stonkingly vivid production of Little Baby Jesus by Tristan Fynn-Aiduenu, who won this year’s JMK award for emerging directors, the props are imaginary but so real you’d … [Read more...]

Propwatch: the only types of prop in the world in The Antipodes

October 31, 2019 by David Jays Leave a Comment

Once about the time there was a group of people, telling stories and talking about telling stories. They didn’t exactly know what stories they should tell, or why they were telling them, so they just sat round a big oval table under a big fancy light fitting, and kept riffing about mythic stories, and hearing each other’s personal stories, and not going home so they could continue talking about … [Read more...]

Propwatch: the pig’s head in Mephisto [A Rhapsody]

October 18, 2019 by David Jays Leave a Comment

When historians of the future chronicle the last days of Britain, a pig’s head may enjoy its own footnote. Assuming that there are still historians, academic protocols or indeed anything resembling a future. That porker’s head supposedly shared a brief but intimate moment with former premier David Cameron: the alleged Juliet to his Romeo, the Isolde to his Tristan, the roll to his sausage and the … [Read more...]

Propwatch: the gloves in The Watsons

October 1, 2019 by David Jays Leave a Comment

Does anyone still wear – gloves? Royals, of course, still consider them an essential element in the capsule wardrobe – anything to protect them from the clammy-handed flesh of the commonweal. Driving gloves suit men of a certain age and Rover-loving air of Alan Partridge. And commuters scatter single woolly numbers on public transport all through the winter. But a lady’s elegant, elbow-tweaking … [Read more...]

Propwatch: the bell in Amsterdam

September 17, 2019 by David Jays Leave a Comment

Ping! There’s a bell on the desk in Amsterdam. The kind of calling-for-immediate-attention bell that invites a sharp smack with palm or finger, and drives Basil Fawlty to the very verge of derangement. Ping! It’s a comedy device – an indicator of short-fuse entitlement, an enhancer of retro-farce chaos. It retains its comic tinge in Amsterdam, by Israeli playwright Maya Arad Yasur; which is … [Read more...]

Propwatch: the photo album in Appropriate

September 5, 2019 by David Jays Leave a Comment

In Can’t We Talk About Something More Pleasant?, her graphic memoir about her parents’ old age, the New Yorker cartoonist Ros Chast has some advice about hoarding. Don’t hold onto anything you don’t want your kids to have to sort through once you’re gone. In her case, plastic tchotchkes beyond number. In my case, look forward to old theatre programmes and a surprising quantity of wooden spoons. … [Read more...]

Propwatch: the kettle in The Doctor

September 3, 2019 by David Jays Leave a Comment

Is a home without a kettle even a home? ‘Oh David, such a homemaker,’ sighed a visitor to my spartan university room, softened only by a kettle and the complete Arden Shakespeare. But the kettle was hospitality and self-care for a scaredy-cat student; even today it amplifies (and, on grouchy days, paves the way back towards) connection. A kettle is the first step towards home. In The Doctor – … [Read more...]

Propwatch: the takeaway cartons in the end of history…

July 23, 2019 by David Jays Leave a Comment

I love food, but I love cooking even more. The shopping and chopping, the stirring and serving. Cooking for other people is a pleasure, a game, an expression of care. At heart, I’m a caterer. So it was remarkably upsetting to see food repeatedly announced yet never enjoyed in Jack Thorne’s new play the end of history… at the Royal Court. Each of the three acts – set a decade apart, from 1997 to … [Read more...]

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David Jays

I am a writer and critic on performance, books and film and currently write for, among others, the Sunday Times and the Guardian. I edit Dance Gazette, the magazine of the Royal Academy of Dance. I’m also a lifelong Londoner: it’s the perfect city for connecting to art forms that both look back and spring forward. [Read More]

Performance Monkey

This is what theatre and dance audiences do: we sit in the dark, watching performances. And then, if it seems worth it, we think about what we've seen, and how it made us feel. The blog should be a conversation, so please comment on the posts and add your thoughts. You know what I've always … [Read More...]

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Recent Comments

  • David Jays on Propwatch: the strap-on in When We Have Sufficiently Tortured Each Other: “Ah yes, Alex, there was The Writer too. Purple, as I remember? Clearly it's the prop of the moment...” Feb 13, 07:18
  • Alex on Propwatch: the strap-on in When We Have Sufficiently Tortured Each Other: “A load of total b****cks IMHO ... such a waste of two brilliant actors ... they didn't dare have an…” Feb 12, 23:45
  • David Jays on History boy: “Donald, what a fantastic memory - now, that's a production I'd have loved to have seen. And always wonderful to…” Jun 29, 18:22
  • Donald F Tirabassi on History boy: “I just read your 'History Boy' post from Feb. 2016.. Thank you for validating the power of all those RSC…” Jun 21, 21:37
  • David Jays on Propwatch: the book in The Inheritance: “That's lovely of you to say, Amina. Thank you.” Apr 18, 08:20
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An ArtsJournal Blog

Recent Posts

  • Propwatch: the climbing tackle in Touching the Void
  • Propwatch: the jukebox in ‘Master Harold’… and the boys
  • Propwatch: the invisible magnets in Little Baby Jesus
  • Propwatch: the only types of prop in the world in The Antipodes
  • Propwatch: the pig’s head in Mephisto [A Rhapsody]

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