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David Jays on theatre and dance

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They don’t trust me with cheese

April 2, 2020 by David Jays Leave a Comment

'The man next to us is honking like a seal,' whispered my friend Mel at the interval of One Man, Two Guvnors. It was the press night of the National Theatre production, back in 2011, and we'd gone along hoping for a bit of a chortle, I guess. We didn't know we'd be part of an audience convulsed with laughter. And the man sitting beside us really was honking like a seal. Tonight the National … [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 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 stuffed duck in Rutherford & Son

June 3, 2019 by David Jays Leave a Comment

There’s barely a scrap of frivolity in the Rutherford home. The home of a Tyneside manufacturing family in the 1910s, it’s imposing, substantial, stuffed to the gunwhales with heavy furniture – yet you struggle to spot anything that isn’t grimly functional or solid enough to break your toe should you drop it. Whatever else it is, the house of Rutherford is not a house of fun. Githa Sowerby … [Read more...]

Propwatch: the feather boa in Follies

February 25, 2019 by David Jays Leave a Comment

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 strap-on in When We Have Sufficiently Tortured Each Other

February 12, 2019 by David Jays 2 Comments

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...]

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 blender in Julie

June 18, 2018 by David Jays Leave a Comment

The talk around us was all about the dishwashers. ‘Look, there’s two of them,’ murmured the woman in front of us. ‘Three dishwashers,’ gasped a guy in the row behind. By the end, I counted four: it turns out there were seven. What else does the kitchen in Julie, Polly Stenham’s reboot of Strindberg, contain? An ostentatiously long table/worktop. A couple of cupboards fitted alongside the … [Read more...]

Propwatch: the plastic bags in Macbeth

April 18, 2018 by David Jays Leave a Comment

Rufus Norris’ bereft, survivalist production of Macbeth was the show that launched a thousand thinkpieces about his regime at the National Theatre. The reviews were overwhelmingly hostile, and this apparently misfired Shakespeare followed on the heels of a series of mishit new plays in the Olivier Theatre, the company’s flagship space. Was Norris’ time up? Several weeks on, and with a fistful … [Read more...]

Propwatch: the dolls in John

February 12, 2018 by David Jays 2 Comments

The best scene in any play in London right now (don’t argue, I’m not listening) opens the second act in John by Annie Baker. Three women – Mertis, who runs a guesthouse in Gettysburg, Pennsylvania; her close friend Genevieve; and the much younger Jenny, who is staying at the guesthouse with her boyfriend – discuss the interior life of dolls. Jenny: When I was little I was always worried about … [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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