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Production of Ladies Day


Inyanga

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For those not familiar with the production (including myself).

What type of fish? (Tuna and cod look a bit different)

What quantity?

What do the cast do with it?

 

The scene is a Fish factory in Hull. The cast are weighing, trimming and packing fillets of smoked fish. The fish are packed into plastic boxes.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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This may seem daft but;

1) Go to fishmongers.

2) Buy fishes.

3) Use in play with lots of ice and very blunt knives.

4) Take fish home and cook.

5) Eat fish.

6) Repeat as required for scheduled number of performances.

 

E2A you only need one or two fishies.

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You could use what was used for food in Wesker's The shoddy nasty piles of chipboard which fall apart after 3 months at both the Royal Court and the National.

 

E2A I had forgotten that the forum did that to that word.

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They could try "Acting" - that combined with a prop that's vaguely the right shape will be considerably better and practical than anything real or that you really chop up.

 

I think that's a little harsh, the response to every prop enquiry shouldn't just be "acting", for the very good reason that it would put prop-makers out of a job.

The truthful answer, which has already been said, is use real fish.

OR if you have some real H&S jobsworth making ill-advised screechings about how dangerous smoked fish is, maybe go for plasticene or playdough in a suitable colour. You could even, if you were feeling really fancy, do a couple of plaster casts of real smoked fish and then use those moulds to shape your playdough/plasticene fish shapes. The advantage of using a soft dough is of course that you CAN cut it, unlike using a foam prop which has neither the weight or the consistency of fish. You could get away with foam props maybe if your audience are far enough away or your cast are practiced enough with the props to make it look real enough.

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But ask any good prop maker and they'll tell you that ultra-realistic, practical props (ie things you actually can cut up) are almost never needed or used precisely because a better solution is acting. As long as the objects the actors are handling don't look massively out of place and provided the actors are doing some proper acting you'll end up with a scene that no-one in the audience would question or doubt. I'm fairly sure that in virtually every case where actors are shot/stabbed/die on stage they aren't actually killed, that in Les Mis where the ensamble are toiling at the docks dragging ships ashore or toiling in a factory making clothes they are probably "acting" hauling on a piece of rope and "acting" at sewing whilst handling some piece of fabric that look vaguely like half-made clothing and miming using a needle and thread rather than there being an actual full sized ship in the wings and a profitable side-business in clothing alterations completed on stage.

 

I can think of a lot of reasons (practical rather than over-zelous H&S) not to use real fish being chopped on stage and I can say that as someone who has had to "do" a show with fish chopping and prepping - some props vaguely the right shape and some good acting will do a much better and practical job of conveying someone cutting up and preparing fish than ultra-realistic prop fish with breakaway components would.

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t in Les Mis where the ensamble are toiling at the docks dragging ships ashore or toiling in a factory making clothes they are probably "acting" hauling on a piece of rope and "acting" at sewing whilst handling some piece of fabric that look vaguely like half-made clothing and miming using a needle and thread

So... they are still using a piece of rope then, or a piece of fabric which the props dept have carefully made to look like a half made garment.

No-one is denying that actors have to act.... just that sometimes they can't and so need to be propped up as it were.

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I apologise for lowering the tone with my last post. Too flippant.

 

I am a believer in suspension of disbelief and hate the approach that many on BR seem to have of ultra-realism. Theatre is not cinema or documentary TV and should not attempt to be such. Akh Ting is a requirement, incredibly accurate fake fish are not. Anything that represents and can be seen in the audience imagination as a fish will do. We don't recreate life places and situations with pinpoint accuracy, we use our art to present our interpretation of them.

 

With a fish processing shop we would have great difficulty producing the vast quantity of sh1t and guts so anything that remotely represents a fishy will do. You are never going to get the constant streams of water anyway so it has to be representative.

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Thank you all for your comments, most interesting. I have no qualms about the ability of our actors to act and we have considered most of the options suggested. Clearly real fish is the answer but as we work in a very intimate theatre environment with very limited props space we were looking for something which would make life a little easier and avoid potential H and S issues and save time on scene changes. We also perform very close to our audience, often in the round, and although we are well able to suspend belief, that in itself creates its own problems! On balance, some sort of dough would seem to be the best solution so I guess that is the way to go. Thanks again to all who offered input
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