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Theatrical props anchor a play to a time and place. They transport both cast and audience to the heart of the play. This is especially true at the Abbey, where the current production of The Plough and the Starsuses props dating back to the play’s premiere in 1926, writes SARA KEATING

AT THE Abbey, props – that is “theatrical properties” to give them their proper name – provide a secret history of the theatre. The ghosts of long-dead actors sit in chairs that are still recycled between productions, while the shadow of other plays hover above an original Victorian pram that has been used at the Abbey since its very first years. Such objects accrue stories in the same way that cities or buildings or people do. They are a palimpsest of many different lives and different uses.