Give Props Their Props!

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            As funny as The Beaux’ Stratagem read on paper, I was not prepared for the laughing fit I would come across that night! On our first trip to the National Theatre, we watched Light Shining in Buckinghamshire in the Lyttelton Theatre, one of the two prosceniums (the most common theatre layout) in the establishment. The Beaux’ Stratagem was performed in the Olivier Theatre, a thrust theatre. A thrust theatre is a theatre with seating on three sides, instead of one side like a proscenium, and a stage that extends into the audience. The Olivier Theatre was an interesting thrust theatre, because it was rounded like a semicircle.

Scrub, the butler, and Archer, one of the beaux,
inside Lady Bountiful's house
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            The set was the inside of a house with multiple levels that was easily transformed from a shabby inn to an upper-middle class townhouse. Theatre can be done without all the fancy elements, but I find it amazing what a few props can do. Using imagination can be fun at times, but having physical props can really help a story progress.

            The Beaux’ Stratagem took place around 18^th century England with the beaux “Mr. Aimwell and Mr. Archer, two charming, dissolute young men who have blown their fortunes in giddy London. Shamed and debt-ridden, they flee to provincial Lichfield. Their ‘Stratagem’: to marry for money.” Along their ways to obtaining their new fortune, they meet their match in Dorinda, daughter of the rich doctor Lady Bountiful, and Mrs. Sullen, wife of Lady Bountiful’s son (Dorinda’s brother).

            Back when women wore multiple layers and corsets, fans were needed in order to keep women from swooning from overheating and hyperventilating. After fans became a statement, a fan language was created. There were a few moments where the actresses playing Dorinda and Mrs. Sullen used this silent language, but they mainly used the fans to keep their conversations more private.

            The use of fans was not physically mentioned in the script, but they are a great way to bring the period to life, and to show how more conservative women showed flirtation.

Mrs. Sullen, Dorinda and Gipsy, a servant and wench
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(Information found at http://www.nationaltheatre.org.uk)