For those who spend the majority of their theatregoing time in Broadway venues, its extraordinarily refreshing to see work in a rawer, less production-heavy style. The current production of Black Watch at St. Ann’s Warehouse, an impressionistic drama about a Scottish regiment in Iraq offers exactly such perspective. While video is employed and there’s a startling and effective bit of flying work, the majority of the show is performed with a few chairs, a table, half of a cargo shipping container (or an excellent facsimile thereof) and, of all things, a pool table.
The pool table proves remarkably versatile, as it stands in for army vehicles, a clever hiding place and a number of other locations. Without much fuss, this innocuous denizen of bars and basements is a theatrical marvel, bridging both the wartime and post-war experiences of these ordinary Scottish soldiers from a fabled but now disbanded regiment. In a more elaborately, expensively produced show, this use of a common pool table for a variety of locations would be impossible, not say ridiculous. But in context, its a reminder of the transformative power of theatre and the benefits of economy. For as long as Black Watch plays internationally, the pool table is an emblem of what theatre can do, and surely deserves the title of the hardest working prop in show business.
Posted on Thursday, November 8th, 2007 at 11:29 am
by
Howard Sherman
Filed under:
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