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 axe in Buggy Baby
It was Chekhov who defined the essential rule of theatre props. ‘If in the first act you have hung a pistol on the wall,’ he told a friend in 1889, ‘then in the following one it should be fired. Otherwise don’t put it there.’ It doesn’t need to go off in predictable ways – Uncle Vanya proves that – but without the bang, it’s just window-dressing. When I saw the emergency axe pinioned high on … [Read more...]
Propwatch: the facepaint pots in An Octoroon
There are knives and flames and even a tomahawk in An Octoroon. But the most hazardous, incendiary objects are three small pots of make-up. Branden Jacobs-Jenkins’ delirious date with an antebellum melodrama from 1859 brings the theatrical politics of two ages into collision. It’s about finding the frisson in antiquated material – and it turns out there’s no quicker way to do that than a thick … [Read more...]