{"id":1943,"date":"2019-11-24T23:37:43","date_gmt":"2019-11-24T23:37:43","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/performancemonkey\/?p=1943"},"modified":"2019-11-24T23:41:31","modified_gmt":"2019-11-24T23:41:31","slug":"propwatch-the-climbing-tackle-in-touching-the-void","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/performancemonkey\/2019\/11\/propwatch-the-climbing-tackle-in-touching-the-void.html","title":{"rendered":"Propwatch: the climbing tackle in Touching the Void"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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How do you capture the scale, the struggle, the elemental extremity of mountain climbing? In the theatre? It\u2019s simpler than you think. After all, they both use the same kit.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Touching the Void<\/a><\/em> is based on the true story of two young Brits attempting to scale a never-scaled face of the Siula Grande mountain in the Peruvian Andes. David Greig’s adaptation has found its purest home in old proscenium theatres \u2013 the venerable Bristol Old Vic (which first welcomed Georgian audiences in 1766), where Tom Morris’ production began, Edinburgh Lyceum Theatre from 1883, Northampton\u2019s 1884 Royal and now another Victorian house, the Duke of York’s Theatre (1892) in London.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Plush and gilt, boxes, scrolls and chandeliers \u2013 these\nwill surely be the least likely frame for a story that mostly takes place at\ntowering altitudes, in ice-lashed winds and miles from the nearest human? But\ntheatre has been in the business of climbing and scaling, of suspending bodies\nalong with disbelief, of dreaming the impossible dream via rope and metal, for\ncenturies now.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When I interviewed the designer Es Devlin<\/a> a while back, she showed me one of her favourite books, a Victorian manual of stage illusion. She was talking about a play called The Nether, <\/em>set in a futuristic world, but pointed out that, \u2018despite appearances, it\u2019s a very simple design, not at all hi-tech\u2026 classic smoke and mirrors. At the Royal Court, the stage crew used 19th-century manual hemp-rope counterweights to change the scenery.\u2019<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A friend whose veins run with theatre and seafaring often\nmentions the crossover between mariners and stagehands. All the theatres that Touching\nthe Void<\/em> has visited would, for much of their early lives, have used\npainted backcloths. Their scenic effects, says my pal, were \u2018dependent on sailcloth\nand decommissioned sails, put together in sail-lofts along the working river,\nrope-rigged and hauled by ex (sometimes temporarily so) mariners.\u2019 Similar\ntackle was used for the flying that marks every festive Peter Pan<\/em> (and,\nfor the ballet crowd, Giselle<\/em>).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What does this mean? It means ropes and wires and clips\nand harnesses. Things for hauling, things for holding \u2013 especially for holding,\nbecause fingers are fallible and if things slip through it spell disaster\n(falling to your doom; disrupting a matinee). Securing everything tight is\nparamount \u2013 and for that you need cords and belays, carabiners and quickdraws,\nthings that grip and connect and keep you safe.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

For much of Touching the Void<\/em>, we see this strange\nworld of ultimate risk through the eyes of Sarah (Fiona Hampton), sister of one\nof the Andean adventurers. We have to be made to feel the thrill of climbing,\nas well as its dangers and cruel moral choices. So, to give her a taste, the\nclimbers pile furniture from the opening pub scene \u2013 long wooden tables, sketchy\nwooden chairs \u2013 up the side of the proscenium arch, reaching to the circle\nboxes. And, slowly, determinedly, Sarah grapples and hauls herself upwards \u2013 up\nthe sheer face of the table, around the jutting spars of chair legs \u2013 until she\ntriumphantly attains the upper circle. Sat right at the front, my moonface turned\nupwards too, neck craned back, jaw slack with delight. I love this \u2013 being shown\nhow illusion is achieved without any apparent pretence, but falling for it\nanyway.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Photos (above and top) by Michael Wharley<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

To be honest, nothing else in the show gave me quite that thrill, involving though it was (and, though I\u2019d seen the 2003 documentary<\/a>, I\u2019d totally forgotten crucial details of who survived the expedition, which kept things tense). The situation has more weight than the characters, and nothing in the ingenuity of Ti Green\u2019s design is quite as exciting as that no-frills early sequence. But that climb up the pros is a corker \u2013 and the props that make it happen are vital to reaching the heights, whether nestled on stage or against the sky.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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

How do you capture the scale, the struggle, the elemental extremity of mountain climbing? In the theatre? It\u2019s simpler than you think. After all, they both use the same kit. Touching the Void is based on the true story of two young Brits attempting to scale a never-scaled face of the Siula Grande mountain in […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":1944,"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":[749,746,322,321,747,745,743],"class_list":{"0":"post-1943","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-uncategorized","8":"tag-bristol-old-vic","9":"tag-david-greig","10":"tag-props","11":"tag-propwatch","12":"tag-ti-green","13":"tag-tom-morris","14":"tag-touching-the-void","15":"entry"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/performancemonkey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1943","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=1943"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/performancemonkey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1943\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1948,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/performancemonkey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1943\/revisions\/1948"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/performancemonkey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1944"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/performancemonkey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1943"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/performancemonkey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1943"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/performancemonkey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1943"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}