The Table

By Tanya Ronder
Directed by Zoë Waterman

“The things that they remember, the things they forget and the things they pass on, define a family’s history.

For the Best family, their sturdy, handcrafted dining table holds the stories of six generations; each scratch, crack and stain telling a story about their lives, and the lives of their ancestors.  Stories of love and death, of arguments and of travel across continents.”

Beginning life at the family’s home in Lichfield, Staffordshire, the table is a symbol of lives lived, and tells many stories. But when it comes to their family history, how much can they trust their memories?

First produced at the National Theatre, this is the regional premiere of Tanya Ronder’s Table: a moving drama about belonging that explores how different people remain connected through centuries by the stories, and possessions, passed down by their ancestors.

This show for me is one in which i believe will be a big part of the methodology behind my work for a long time. The idea that this one air loom had such personal connections with a generation of family, allowing each other to meet a part of their ancestors personality from marks and scratches in the table- finishing this with a more modern mark of nail varnish. This is something that I believe the pottery industry has the capability of and this is what i now want to explore further in my work. The connection between creator, buyer and how their lives are so different.

This got me thinking of how person and public actually changes relationships with certain items. For instance a public mug as a capsule of narrative may not appeal to everybody. This being down to the idea that it would be a mug that would tell of the people shared before but people treat buying a coffee from a shop as a personal moment, maybe not one to be shared with the hands and lips of others. Hygiene and territory instincts would not allow you to enjoy that experience so it would be the idea of nit picking the nice things people would like to know for instance gossip or stories rather than the hygiene of the person who used the mug before you.

This is a concept i have made to show you how a mug would look if it visually concealed all of its history.