All The World’s A Stage: Bar Wars
Motherhood features the ultimate bar-room brawl: a battle between Xena and the ancient Gods. Kate Barker watches the fight scene on the set of the final episode and learns the secrets of Joxer's Tavern.
Official Xena Magazine: Issue 11
In the 25 years since Xena and Gabrielle were encased in ice to avoid certain death, Joxer the Mighty has been a very busy lad. For one thing, he has found the time (and the means, raising the possibility of a very interesting back story) to father Virgil, a boy destined to become a legendary poet. For another, he has established a tavern, legendary not so much for its status as a watering hole, but more for the artefacts it holds. Joxer’s Tavern is a museum - dedicated to all things Xena.
The tavern's spacious back room, located in one of Pacific Renaissance’s studio warehouses in West Auckland, was designed and built to accommodate the literally explosive fire and smoke effects of Xena’s climactic battle with the gods in the season five finale, Motherhood. During the episode, the back room is just a few steps away from the tavern’s main drinking area. It’s not that simple outside the Xenaverse, however. In the production company’s reality, the two halves of Joxer’s Tavern are in two completely different places.
Five minutes’ drive away, in another nondescript studio warehouse, lies the main room of Joxer’s Tavern, a museum designed to wow the eager public with images from the legend of Xena, Warrior Princess.
One of the first things to be noticed is a rather familiar-looking motif which adorns the walls, large round tables and wooden beams overhanging the bar. Yes, the chakram (in its original design) is everywhere - just to remind you of who this place is dedicated to.
Most of the chakram designs have been painted onto the structure and its furniture, except for the gigantic aluminium copy hanging on the right-hand wall. This mammoth recreation of Xena’s weapon, like most of the Tavern’s props and set-dressings, had been pre-made long before it was needed for this latest incarnation. Not that Props Designer Roger Murray can actually recall the episode in which it was used. “We’ve made so much stuff,” says Murray, who has been with Xena since the beginning, “I can’t remember what it was for!”
When prompted, however, Murray’s memory for episodes in which some of the other items have been used is slightly clearer. In a corner of the tavern, on a gallows-like version of a dressmaker’s dummy, hangs a simpler, stylised version of Xena’s original costume. The top half has the softer body armour that identifies it as part of a stunt costume used in earlier seasons. The lower half is made of a softer, much thinner material; certainly not the leather used in the ‘real’ costumes worn by Lucy Lawless and her doubles on the show.
“That’s the play costume,” remembers Murray, referring to the episode The Play’s the Thing, where a stage play was mounted which dramatises the exploits of Xena. “When we did the play,” Murray continues, “we made panto swords for it too.”
The set itself is a “generic tavern”, used for many episodes calling for scenes inside an inn, and nearly every piece of its memorabilia has been used several times before. Hung strategically at various places around the tavern are many well-known and recognisable ‘Xena-esque’ items. For instance, there’s the original Gabrielle outfit hanging on the back wall. Other familiar souvenirs include copies of the original and yin-yang chakrams, Xena’s whip (once traded to the would-be warrior Minya in A Day in the Life), Gabrielle’s staff and sais, and even a Xena doll.
Prominent place is also given to a display of Gabrielle’s scrolls (like the ones uncovered in the 1940s episode The Xena Scrolls), revealing to the general populace (and at one pivotal moment, to Eve) the epic adventures of the Warrior Princess. The obvious question has to be asked; is the text quilled onto the parchment authentic ancient Greek? Unfortunately not, says Murray, who then goes on to explain the reasons why. “At the end of the day, Greek looks like Greek; this is fiction, so it’s better to make up your own text.”
Authentic texts or not, Joxer’s Tavern makes a very impressive museum. Perhaps this could be the earliest example of the beginnings of a Xena fan club? It’s very easy to suspend one’s disbelief when standing amongst so much memorabilia, objects that are in their own way ‘authentic’ artefacts from Xena’s history.
That is, of course, if you forget your initial walk through the Xena Propshop, passing halfpainted swords and silicon moulds for frozen bodies. Still, it’s no more disconcerting than seeing Hades (Stephen Lovat) reclining in his trailer with a good book, waiting for his next scene, with a ‘Xena Wardrobe’ robe hanging loosely over his leathers. Just a little longer in Joxer’s Tavern, please…?