{"id":1917,"date":"2019-10-31T00:42:35","date_gmt":"2019-10-31T00:42:35","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/performancemonkey\/?p=1917"},"modified":"2019-10-31T13:14:42","modified_gmt":"2019-10-31T13:14:42","slug":"propwatch-the-only-types-of-prop-in-the-antipodes","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/performancemonkey\/2019\/10\/propwatch-the-only-types-of-prop-in-the-antipodes.html","title":{"rendered":"Propwatch: the only types of prop in the world in The Antipodes"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Once about the time there was a group of people, telling\nstories and talking about telling stories. They didn\u2019t exactly know what stories\nthey should tell, or why they were telling them, so they just sat round a big\noval table under a big fancy light fitting, and kept riffing about mythic stories,\nand hearing each other\u2019s personal stories, and not going home so they could\ncontinue talking about stories through the night.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Dave says there are seven types of stories in the world\n(starting with \u2018rags to riches\u2019). Josh says there are ten types of stories in\nthe world (starting with \u2018a threshold crossing\u2019). One of the Dannies says there\nare 36 types of stories in the world (starting with \u2018supplication\u2019). But Brian\nsays there are 18 types of stories in the world (starting with \u2018the void\u2019) and\nhe may or may not be right but his list is by some measure the strangest of\nthem all.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In The Antipodes<\/a><\/em> by Annie Baker, it is never clear why these eight people are sitting around the mirrored table talking about how to talk about stories (are they developing a movie? A tv series? A video game? A religion?). It is not quite clear what kinds of strangeness is going down in the world outside. Or elsewhere in the building. Or within each of them. But what is quite clear, by the end of the clear-eyed National Theatre production by Baker and designer Chloe Lamford<\/a>, is that there are just seven types of props in the world.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

1 The prop you eat<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

There\u2019s nothing more pleasing than a prop that is eaten. You know it has been made, or bought, for one night only, and must be bought, or made, for every subsequent performance. It\u2019s no surprise that propwatch began<\/a> with edible props and has returned<\/a> to them. The story-spinning team in The Antipodes<\/em> is exercised by food \u2013 every day, Sarah the assistant, the only person who gets several changes of costume, brings in a takeout menu from a different localish restaurant: Japanese, pizza, Tibetan (\u2018I ordered yak butter tea\u2019).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

That last selection was from Eleanor, my favourite character in the play (and beautifully played by Sin\u00e9ad Matthews, whose quizzical gaze on the world, and uncanny rasp of a voice in a tiny frame, seem a perfect fit with this role). The only woman on the story team, she also has the most idiosyncratic snack selection \u2013 at least compared to the Pringles bros. She tap-tap-taps her hard-boiled eggs on the table, unfazed when the guys snicker, \u2018that smells like farts\u2019 (\u2018It does?\u2019 she asks, then sniffs, shrugs and carries on munching). And when invited to request snacks she goes for sharp green apples and almond butter, which she later brings out of her carpet bag (and who can see a carpet bag onstage and not think of Mary Poppins?). In Eleanor, snack action functions like defiance, like principle, like self-knowledge.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

2 The prop you drink<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

So, there\u2019s a lot of Perrier in The Antipodes <\/em>design. Like, a lot<\/em>. Baker\u2019s stage directions specify boxes of seltzer cans piled up in the office, but at the National there are stacks of Perrier boxes. Over 50, I think. They\u2019re incongruous in the otherwise sleek-pannelled, discreetly teched office suite. Why are they there? Is there no storage space in the offices of Whateva Inc? Do they panic that the colleagues won\u2019t stay hydrated? Is it just the peculiar visual pulse of emerald boxes against light wood, plus providing somewhere for Matthews to hunker down during a hurricane-spooked all-nighter? Either way, there\u2019s a lot weirdness in this play, but none of it is booze-induced.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

3 Hi tech props<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Everyone gathers at one end of the table and gazes up to midair through blue-glow goggles for a virtual meeting with some big cheese called Max. They look like a flock of futuristic owls \u2013 but as is fitting for a play about the unreliable fundamentals of storytelling, the tech splutters and most of Max\u2019s words are lost in static. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

4 Lo fi props <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The more childlike, the more effective. One of Baker\u2019s standout sequences has Sarah (Imogen Doel, glorious) narrate a story from her childhood that within minutes becomes the Grimmest of tales (and an echo of sorts of the creepy af dolls from Baker\u2019s previous play, John<\/a><\/em>). An apparently guileless story, it leaves characters and audience slack-jawed in weirded-out wonder. The prop equivalent is a clutch of childhood stories, handwritten and hand-illustrated, prised from the cellar and handed around, artless yet piercingly effective.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

5 The prop that seems to promise a major plot twist\nbut doesn’t deliver it<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

In 19th-century plays, the prop that deploys a major plot\ntwist is often a letter \u2013 containing good, bad or secretive news, or falling\ninto the wrong hands, or the right ones. Now, it should be the mobile phone\nthat shoulders the role, and Baker primes us for that with scenes in which we\u2019re\ntold phones must always be off in the room. Sandy (Conleth Hill) \u2013 the possibly\nlegendary, possibly dynamic, possibly toxic leader \u2013 nonetheless breaks his own\nrule, picking up a stream of alarming bulletins from home (\u2018her ovary just tied\nitself in a knot and then it exploded\u2019). And Eleanor sneaks a peek at her\nmessages only to get hounded by the alpha bros. But whatever disasters and revelations\nemerge during the evening, they don\u2019t come via phone. Things are simpler,\nstranger than that.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"

Sin\u00e9ad Matthews as Eleanor. All photos by Manuel Harlan<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

6 The evolving prop<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Eleanor, again. I\u2019m a bit obsessed by Eleanor, who delves into the carpet bag and takes out a short length of peachy knitting to help her think. And then a longer length. And then\u2026 well, you\u2019ll see. Stories help us explain the world, in ways mundane or overarching, like Fisayo Akinade\u2019s sore-eyed creation myth, plaiting its epic skein from detail to fabular detail. Knitting, like weaving, threading and embroidering, is a long-established metaphor for storytelling \u2013 building up stitch by stitch, detail by detail, following a thread from once upon a time to happy ever after, into the labyrinth and back again. What seems a distraction from the room\u2019s prime purpose may be its purest expression.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

7 The prop that blows your mind<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

I can\u2019t tell you about this one. Not while the production is still running. But in a play that gestures frequently at strangeness \u2013 beginning with griffins and gorgons, wormholing through the odder pages of natural history wikipedia, sharing intimate stories of pustular oddity \u2013 there\u2019s one prop that evokes and outdoes all the bizarrity we hear about. And there it lies on the table, a delicate bundle of narrative art \u2013 surprise, mystery, reverberation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So that\u2019s it, that\u2019s the seven types of prop in the\nworld. Just seven.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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

Once about the time there was a group of people, telling stories and talking about telling stories. They didn\u2019t 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 […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":1918,"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":[719,721,723,65,322,321,725,724,720],"class_list":{"0":"post-1917","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-uncategorized","8":"tag-annie-baker","9":"tag-chloe-lamford","10":"tag-imogen-doel","11":"tag-national-theatre","12":"tag-props","13":"tag-propwatch","14":"tag-sinead-matthews","15":"tag-storytelling","16":"tag-the-antipodes","17":"entry"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/performancemonkey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1917","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=1917"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/performancemonkey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1917\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1927,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/performancemonkey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1917\/revisions\/1927"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/performancemonkey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1918"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/performancemonkey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1917"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/performancemonkey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1917"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/performancemonkey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1917"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}