{"id":1904,"date":"2019-10-01T09:19:05","date_gmt":"2019-10-01T08:19:05","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/performancemonkey\/?p=1904"},"modified":"2019-10-01T09:23:35","modified_gmt":"2019-10-01T08:23:35","slug":"propwatch-the-gloves-in-the-watsons","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/performancemonkey\/2019\/10\/propwatch-the-gloves-in-the-watsons.html","title":{"rendered":"Propwatch: the gloves in The Watsons"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Does anyone still wear \u2013 gloves? Royals, of course, still\nconsider them an essential element in the capsule wardrobe \u2013 anything to\nprotect them from the clammy-handed flesh of the commonweal. Driving gloves\nsuit men of a certain age and Rover-loving air of Alan Partridge. And commuters\nscatter single woolly numbers on public transport all through the winter.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But a lady\u2019s elegant, elbow-tweaking white gloves? Or a\ngentleman\u2019s svelte riding gloves? Spot these on stage, my friends, and you can\nrest assured that you are safely encased in the genteel past. Dickens World.\nDownton World. Best of all, Austen World.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

At least, that\u2019s how it seems when The Watsons<\/a><\/em> begins. Based on Jane Austen\u2019s unfinished mid-period novel, Laura Wade\u2019s script offers period drama familiarity. Sharp-eyed heroine whose wits outweigh her income. Supporting cast of silly siblings, meddling in-laws and snooty gentry, plus potential husbands ranging from sexy to steadfast.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In Samuel West\u2019s nimble production, the first few scenes\nare satisfyingly glove-y. Emma (Grace Molony) first appears carrying a pair of\ntighty whities as she prepares for a swank local ball, her first since\nreturning from living with a rich aunt to her relatively cash-strapped sisters.\nThe evening gloves complement her snowy frock: Emma knows ball rules.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

She soon meets the cad, the dullard and the standoffish, awkward local aristocrat (Joe Bannister), whose manner is cold but whose wealth is hot. He comes calling the next day, to initiate a ham-fisted courtship. His best tactic is to snatch some extra chat by pretending he forgot his chestnut, suede gloves \u2013 a tactic that might succeed if only he wasn\u2019t still holding them.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Gloves as a sign of social manoeuvres or as a gambit in\nthe marriage plot send out palm-huggingly comfortable signals. We know where we\nare \u2013 at least, until Emma prepares to plunge into story-ending marriage with the\nlord, and \u2018Laura\u2019 (Louise Ford), the modern playwright, feels moved to\nintervene. Laura has taken Austen\u2019s existing pages and the thoughts she supposedly\nshared with her sister about the plot, and is set on honouring Austen\u2019s intentions.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But, once Emma and the other characters become aware of 21st-century accessories (phone, trousers for women) and of their own fictionality on Ben Stones’ icing-white set, they are reluctant to follow authorial orders. It is, as Laura admits through gritted teeth, all very Pirandellian. The gloves are off, and soon discarded \u2013 Wade nicely dramatises the tension in the way that even \u2018strong female characters\u2019 in period drama can only demonstrate that strength within the whalebone confines of a courtship narrative. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Maybe \u2013 gasp \u2013 a fictional world can make its own rules?\nForget gloves, here come sunglasses, DJ decks, an actual astronaut. More\ncrucially, here comes female self-determination, sexual self-expression, love\nthat follows the heart and work that follows the passions. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Watsons<\/em> is a short, smart burst of pleasure.\nI\u2019ve also been dipping in and out of Sanditon<\/em>, a tv series based on\nanother unfinished Austen tale. It too has to outpace its origins \u2013 and whereas\nthe play follows colourblind casting convention, the tv drama explicitly runs\nwith Austen\u2019s suggestions about characters of colour. In other ways, it\u2019s\ncosily predictable \u2013 autogenerating plot points that function in exactly the\nway Emma resists. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Wade has previously written piercingly about the dangerous lure of nostalgia \u2013 in Home, I\u2019m Darling<\/a><\/em>, which opened just months before The Watsons<\/em> premiered in Chichester last year. Those sleek white gloves are reassuring, but think of all you can\u2019t do while wearing them. Anything mucky. Anything tactile. Anything bodily. Playful and meta-theatrical, The Watsons<\/em> tweaks a lovingly replication of a throwback world \u2013 where romance and restriction go hand in glove.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Above: Grace Molony (gloves in hand) with Paksie Vernon. Photo by Manuel Harlan. The Watsons was first produced at Chichester in 2018, and is at the Menier Chocolate Factory until 16 November.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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

Does anyone still wear \u2013 gloves? Royals, of course, still consider them an essential element in the capsule wardrobe \u2013 anything to protect them from the clammy-handed flesh of the commonweal. Driving gloves suit men of a certain age and Rover-loving air of Alan Partridge. And commuters scatter single woolly numbers on public transport all […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":1905,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","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":[708,706,705,702,707,322,321,704,703,34],"class_list":{"0":"post-1904","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-uncategorized","8":"tag-ben-stones","9":"tag-gloves","10":"tag-grace-molony","11":"tag-laura-wade","12":"tag-menier","13":"tag-props","14":"tag-propwatch","15":"tag-samuel-west","16":"tag-the-watsons","17":"tag-theatre","18":"entry"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/performancemonkey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1904","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=1904"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/performancemonkey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1904\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1908,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/performancemonkey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1904\/revisions\/1908"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/performancemonkey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1905"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/performancemonkey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1904"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/performancemonkey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1904"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/performancemonkey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1904"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}