What does Willy Loman sell? It’s one of the great unanswered mysteries of American theatre. 38 years the man trudges around New England, hawking the Wagner Company’s whatevers to stores without number, but what does he have in his valises? Who knows – it’s the sale, not the sold, that counts. Whatever they contain, the cases are real enough. We see them early on in the heavy-hearted revival of … [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: home comforts
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...]