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Propwatch: the celery in Berberian Sound Studio

February 15, 2019 by David Jays Leave a Comment

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 beer in Sweat

January 6, 2019 by David Jays Leave a Comment

We don’t see the sweat in Sweat. It dries grimily on the skin, sinks into workclothes, or is sluiced off at home. In Lynn Nottage’s Pulitzer-winning drama, set in America’s rusting rust belt, sweat is the index of manual labour at the steelworks, effort and vigilance distilled to salty droplets. On your feet all day, straining back and bunions – yet aircon is reserved for management, who can sit … [Read more...]

Scream

October 15, 2018 by David Jays Leave a Comment

My pal went into the Donmar’s Measure for Measure expecting a fight. She’d read that Josie Rourke’s production presents the cut-down text twice. The first, set at the time of Shakespeare’s 1604 premiere, where deputy governor Angelo attempts to coerce soon-to-be-nun Isabella into sex to save her brother’s life. The second, set today – same plot but with a female minister harassing a young … [Read more...]

Propwatch: home comforts

September 23, 2018 by David Jays Leave a Comment

The pineapple icebucket in Home, I’m Darling; toothbrushes in Home; the doll’s house in Aristocrats; nothing in Pericles. I’ve been thinking a lot about what makes a home in the last year or so. That need for a place of safety, in which you have a stake, is pressing – but hard to find. All those phrases run through my mind, warming or mocking depending on the day. There’s no place like home. … [Read more...]

Propwatch: the fans in The Way of the World

May 8, 2018 by David Jays Leave a Comment

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...]

Yaël break

August 27, 2017 by David Jays Leave a Comment

You’d know a Yaël Farber production at 100 paces. The air sweetly smoked and full of noises. The lighting crepuscular but sharded with moonlight. The movement deliberate, registering the actors’ full body weight. And that’s all before anyone speaks a word. Becoming intimate with a director’s style and sensibility is a theatregoing pleasure. It’s not the author who delivers the screed or the … [Read more...]

My American dreams

January 4, 2015 by David Jays 1 Comment

Some people plunge into pantomime for their festive entertainment. I went to America. Not real America, but pretend, demi-dystopian America, courtesy of two musicals – Assassins and City of Angels – and a scintillating reboot of The Merchant of Venice set in Las Vegas. Three versions of damaged, damaging America – its greed and desperation, its delusional entitlement and self-making desire. Happy … [Read more...]

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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  • 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
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An ArtsJournal Blog

Recent Posts

  • Propwatch: the celery in Berberian Sound Studio
  • Propwatch: the strap-on in When We Have Sufficiently Tortured Each Other
  • Propwatch: the suicide note in Matthew Bourne’s Swan Lake
  • Propwatch: the dagger in The Double Dealer
  • Propwatch: the beer in Sweat

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