Industrial Macbeth Props

[Paul Graham]

Hi all

 

We are doing Macbeth in December, set in an industrial waste ground. I'm on the hunt for a suitable crown. If anyone has something hiding in a cupboard or knows someone with one please let me know.

The set will be tarnished scaffold and plastic barbed wire with a large circular rostra, center, covered in a grill to pump LX and smoke through for the couldron etc. The rostra will be accessed by a drawbridge on chain hoists. We are thinking of using Aluminium pipe for the fights, taken straight from the set.

 

If anyone has interesting suggestions/ideas/props/costumes I'd love to hear from you.

 

Thanks in advance

 

Paul

[PoppaDom]

Having worked on many industrial sites in Cornwall with Kneehigh and Wildworks I have seen many things suitable for a crown etc etc....

 

How about the end of a welded high pressure pipe, the flanges forming the lower part and then cut the tube to shape?

 

Poppadom

[Paul Graham]

Cheers Poppadom!

 

I'll look into this- just worried about the weight. Don't want to break Lady Macbeth toes!

 

Thanks for the lead

[andy_s]

just worried about the weight. Don't want to break Lady Macbeth toes!

 

find the thing you want in metal, then copy it in Airex or similar foam. get the actors to "pretend" it's heavy.....

[Oliver S]

Just somthing I thought of now

 

for the scene where their is a floating knife.....what you could do (depending where you are showing this production) is only put black light on , on the stage and then hang a white knife (so it glows) from the top of the stage. Hang it from fishing wire.

 

so it will be that the black lights go on ( I think u guys might also call them UV lights) and then a knife is there that is glowing (because it is white) and then someone up top must move the fishing wire attached to the knife.

 

so you get this sort of ghost effect ...or "floating knife"....

 

I rate this will look awesome!!

 

Hope this helps

 

Oliver

 

*edit for spelling

[themadhippy]

na forget the dagger,use an oxy acetylene torch,then again "Is this a oxy acetylene torch which I see before me,, The handle toward my hand?" dosnt have Quite the same ring to it

[DavidLee]

na forget the dagger,use an oxy acetylene torch,then again "Is this a oxy acetylene torch which I see before me,, The handle toward my hand?" dosnt have Quite the same ring to it

No - but a chainsaw might!

 

David

[T*ny]

The 3 witches could use a cement mixer for a cauldron

[zonino]

na forget the dagger,use an oxy acetylene torch,then again "Is this a oxy acetylene torch which I see before me,, The handle toward my hand?" dosnt have Quite the same ring to it

No - but a chainsaw might!

 

David

 

or, alternatively, a giant inflatable banana! (a la Bouncy Castle Macbeth)

[kerry davies]

This thread takes me back to pre memory loss days.

Saw Moving Being do similar in an ex-church with two level scaff platform using bars as swords and cast all in leather jackets back in the eighties (I think??). Thought at the time that going over to a full-on "biker" theme could be interesting then you could use a Wehrmacht "coal scuttle" helmet for a crown, loads of bike chains, spinning spoked wheels for a cauldron and one hell of a soundtrack.

Actors clambering over scaff always adds a greater physicality to theatre and the sound effects can be fantastic when smashing the set with scaff bars. Certainly keeps the audience awake!