{"id":1569,"date":"2018-03-16T23:52:35","date_gmt":"2018-03-16T23:52:35","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/performancemonkey\/?p=1569"},"modified":"2018-03-17T09:03:34","modified_gmt":"2018-03-17T09:03:34","slug":"propwatch-the-axe-in-buggy-baby","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/performancemonkey\/2018\/03\/propwatch-the-axe-in-buggy-baby.html","title":{"rendered":"Propwatch: the axe in Buggy Baby"},"content":{"rendered":"

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It was Chekhov who defined the essential rule of theatre props. \u2018If in the first act you have hung a pistol on the wall,\u2019 he told a friend in 1889, \u2018then in the following one it should be fired. Otherwise don\u2019t put it there.\u2019 It doesn\u2019t need to go off in predictable ways \u2013 Uncle Vanya<\/em><\/a> proves that \u2013 but without the bang, it\u2019s just window-dressing.<\/p>\n

When I saw the emergency axe pinioned high on the wall at the beginning of Buggy Baby<\/em><\/a>\u00a0at London’s venturesome Yard Theatre \u2013 far too high, it seemed, for anyone to reach \u2013 I thought its purpose would be symbolic. We\u2019re in a state of crisis with no help to hand. Got it.<\/p>\n

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The axe is in place. At top, the axe has gone. Photos: The Other Richard.<\/p><\/div>\n

 <\/p>\n

But Josh Azouz\u2019s play and Ned Bennett\u2019s fiercely insano production spring one surprise after another, and the axe is just one switch among many. Buggy Baby<\/em> is set in a room where refugees Nur and Jaden struggle to make a life and raise Nur\u2019s baby, Aya. Max Johns\u2019 set initially seems a space of stark symmetries. Objects (fridge, basket, one-eyed toy rabbit) sit neatly at the back, and a wardrobe hangs with Narnian peculiarity halfway up the wall. The axe, under its emergency sign, waits aloft, perpendicular to the ceiling. Crossing the pale pink carpet to find a seat, I worried about scuffing it. I needn\u2019t have fretted \u2013 soon enough, the carpet has been resplendently soiled and despoiled, its peony expanses riddled with weaponised domestic clutter.<\/p>\n

Why the crisis? Oh, so many reasons. Nur is fitfully committed to college, so leaves Aya with Jaden, whose focus is foxed by his khat habit. He chews, he views \u2013 notably seeing sleazebucket, gun-toting rabbits. Aya has problems of her own, enhanced by being played by an adult (the superb Jasmine Jones, with grabby fingers, shuttling between beam and tantrum, frown straining as she fills her nappy. It\u2019s the most enjoyable performance I\u2019ve seen all year). Aya wears a pink helmet to shape her soft skull, and is mostly confined to her buggy because they can\u2019t afford a cot. She also, especially when alone with Nur, speaks like a stroppy teenager, cussing up a storm, slapping down dismissals. She knows about how fucked everything is, but she\u2019s also just a baby in a buggy. Menaced by rabbits.<\/p>\n

There\u2019s a lot of quality prop in this show. A tree made of large, glitter-filled balloons. A rubber duck for bathtime play (\u201cI\u2019m learning to be creative with shit,\u201d sighs Aya). Plastic bazookas for bunnies. Bennett has pursued a theatre of sensational unreality, staging texts (Pomona,<\/em> An Octoroon<\/em><\/a>) that spin giddily away from normcore. But, crucially, it\u2019s also a highly functional theatre. Nothing, however outlandish, appears by accident or simply to astonish \u2013 every prop, juxtaposition and dirty bunny is in the text and has a job to do. Ditto the axe.<\/p>\n

Violence and glitter<\/strong><\/p>\n

Bennett doesn\u2019t merely orchestrate extremity but is also a terrific director of conversation: you listen hard, missing not a beat of Azouz\u2019s dialogue. These characters are in trouble, and there are things they want to say and things they don\u2019t want to hear. There are things we may not want to hear either, especially when it comes to Aya\u2019s welfare. The laughs and shocks \u2013 expertly ramped up by Jess Bernberg\u2019s lighting (reader, I squealed) \u2013 don\u2019t mask the sense that something drastic needs to change. We need an emergency axe.<\/p>\n

And, as the peril ramps up, so too does every inch of the set come into play. All throwable objects are thrown. Someone makes it to the top of the wardrobe, in and out of which characters have vaulted. Nur, roused to intervene, marches in with a very long ladder and makes for the axe. The result is violence and glitter.<\/p>\n

Something is very wrong for this makeshift family, but Azouz plays things poker faced. A documentary approach would grind the situation grey; a gothic style would exploit its terrors. On the other hand, there\u2019s a backchatting baby and rabbits smearing themselves with suntan lotion. The axe makes a late textual appearance \u2013 yet it\u2019s an unobtrusive act of genius on the part of Bennett and Johns to have it there all the time, something apparently ridiculous that is supremely functional, that carries the potential for harm and release and will go off quite spectacularly. Chekhov rules.<\/p>\n

Follow David @mrdavidjays<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

It was Chekhov who defined the essential rule of theatre props. \u2018If in the first act you have hung a pistol on the wall,\u2019 he told a friend in 1889, \u2018then in the following one it should be fired. Otherwise don\u2019t put it there.\u2019 It doesn\u2019t need to go off in predictable ways \u2013 Uncle […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":1571,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[463,322,321,34,208],"class_list":{"0":"post-1569","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-uncategorized","8":"tag-ned-bennett","9":"tag-props","10":"tag-propwatch","11":"tag-theatre","12":"tag-yard-theatre","13":"entry"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/performancemonkey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1569","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/performancemonkey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/performancemonkey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/performancemonkey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/performancemonkey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1569"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/performancemonkey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1569\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1576,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/performancemonkey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1569\/revisions\/1576"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/performancemonkey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1571"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/performancemonkey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1569"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/performancemonkey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1569"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/performancemonkey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1569"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}