{"id":1693,"date":"2019-01-13T17:09:07","date_gmt":"2019-01-13T17:09:07","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/performancemonkey\/?p=1693"},"modified":"2019-01-13T17:22:57","modified_gmt":"2019-01-13T17:22:57","slug":"propwatch-the-dagger-in-the-double-dealer","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/performancemonkey\/2019\/01\/propwatch-the-dagger-in-the-double-dealer.html","title":{"rendered":"Propwatch: the dagger in The Double Dealer"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

You know what to expect when people want to wave something\nabout in a flirty Restoration comedy. Fan? Check. Snuff box? Check. Dagger.\nWait, what?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Double Dealer<\/a><\/em> is a young writer\u2019s comedy that springily reinvents the rules. Restoration comedies are often tales of love and money, set in a contemporary London so precisely plotted that you could follow the action on Google Maps. But William Congreve\u2019s second play, written in 1694 when he was just 24, tests the rules of this wig-and-wink genre. Everything is questioned, compacted, almost abstracted.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Instead of fashionable London, we\u2019re in the country, at Lord Touchwood\u2019s house. Selina Cadell\u2019s production wittily places it near what was then the village of Richmond, close to the Orange Tree Theatre \u2013 all the text discloses is that St Albans is the nearest point of interest. Time is confined as tight as place: the scheming Maskwell plans to steal his friend Mellefont\u2019s bride and prospects, but needs to wrap it up quick, before anyone realises what\u2019s happening: three hours tops. In Congreve\u2019s final play, The Way of the World<\/em>, you can calculate each character’s bank balance to the nearest farthing. Here, people are vague about money, and the servants who eyeroll around most plots are barely present. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Working out a plan of the Touchwood manor would send you\ncross-eyed \u2013 the play gabbles about corridors, galleries, wardrobes and\nantechambers until it evokes a kind of Escher twistiness. Nobody comes, nobody\ngoes \u2013 it\u2019s as if there\u2019s no exit to a wider world.<\/p>\n\n\n\n


It’s a young writer’s play that tests the rules of this wig-and-wink genre <\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

And then there\u2019s the dagger. The fan<\/a> is the Restoration prop of choice, as Propwatch has noted \u2013 suited to a vigorous flutter or a rap on the knuckles if moved to extreme emotion. But a dagger? At the pointy end of the plot, it\u2019s brandished by Lady Touchwood, who refuses to behave as if she\u2019s in a comedy. Originally played by Elizabeth Barry, the strongest tragic actor of her day, Lady T is obsessed by Mellefont, her nephew by marriage, and is having an affair with his fake friend Maskwell. She\u2019s playing a dangerous game, partly because there\u2019s nothing playful about her \u2013 she\u2019s tempestuously serious, and ultimately doesn\u2019t care if she destroys her marriage and her reputation. When she leaps through her bedroom, blade out, it\u2019s clear that the rules of comedy are tottering.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Cadell\u2019s production \u2013 like her Love for Love<\/a> <\/em>at the RSC in 2015 \u2013 plays up the glorious phrasing and gestures to the self-conscious theatricality of 17th-century theatre. On the tiny stage in the round, her actors wink and banter with us, a conspiracy of familiarity that can go a bit panto. The splendid Zo\u00eb Waites doubles the role of Lady Touchwood with Cynthia, Mellefont\u2019s grave, wise intended \u2013 which deflates the climactic dagger scene with giggles when one of her characters supposedly eavesdrops on the other. Like much in this comedy, the dagger feels unsettlingly out of place \u2013 all the more reason not to blunt it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Above: Zo\u00eb Waites as Touchwood with Edward MacLiam’s Maskwell. Photo by Robert Day.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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

You know what to expect when people want to wave something about in a flirty Restoration comedy. Fan? Check. Snuff box? Check. Dagger. Wait, what? The Double Dealer is a young writer\u2019s comedy that springily reinvents the rules. Restoration comedies are often tales of love and money, set in a contemporary London so precisely plotted […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":1694,"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":[322,321,510,34],"class_list":{"0":"post-1693","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-uncategorized","8":"tag-props","9":"tag-propwatch","10":"tag-restoration-comedy","11":"tag-theatre","12":"entry"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/performancemonkey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1693","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=1693"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/performancemonkey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1693\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1701,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/performancemonkey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1693\/revisions\/1701"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/performancemonkey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1694"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/performancemonkey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1693"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/performancemonkey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1693"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/performancemonkey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1693"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}