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SWEENEY TODD


garynash

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I am directing Sweeney Todd and thought I'd ask how some of you have achieved various effects required for the show on a limited budget.

 

BLOOD KNIVES - I have searched the internet and have yet to find any suitable to hire.... I'm contemplating making them but thought I'd ask you all for any tips so I am not re-inventing the wheel.

 

PIES - I just wondered wht others have used for pies short of going to Asda and buying loads - would prefer something lighter than a pie to eat perhaaps cake or patter based. Any thoughts?

 

CHAIR - Any other chairs out there other than the one at the National Theatre Prop Hire Department - we hired it 15 years ago and begrudged paying out for it again.

 

FAKE BLOOD - I am keen to aspire to the bloody excesses of Grand Guignol but obviously need plenty of stage blood for this which aint cheap.... does anyone have any recipes that don't stain costumes and set

 

Thanks in advance for any responses.

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Hello Gary.

 

Haven't seen you since I was knee high to a grasshopper and one of Mr. H's boys (along with Seb, James, et-al)

 

Anyway.

 

Blood Knife - Magic Shop (a proper one - not a Joke Shop) nearest one to you that's worth talking to is in Charing Cross I think. Explain the effect, they'll know what to give you. (for the name, I'll have to dig through an old notebook. Drop me a PM to remind me if you need it)

 

Pies - Do they have to be edible? There are a few companies that make Wax based models that are used in bakeries and so on. Google would be your friend there

 

Chair - Pass....

 

Blood - Pass

 

A start in the right direction I hope

 

Regards

 

 

Smiffy

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Gary, another of MrH's crew here...

When I was at stopsley high we did Sweeney as a straight drama and had a good pivoting chair. Might be worth a call to see if they still have it? Nina Brodie used to be head of drama, she's probably still there.

 

Blood knives we did using a cut throat with a small syringe and pipe rebated into an oversize handle. It hid well on our large stage, but might be a bit obvious if you're performing at the library.

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A word on using lots of blood, it looks great, but the action of slitting someone's throat also draws a nice line across any white cloths you may have hanging! Especially when you're using blades powered by co2 cartridges!

 

We went to our local bakers (quite a famous pork pie company - at least in these parts) and they made us a load that were filled with sawdust. Lasted the whole run absolutely fine. Just don't mix them up with the real ones!

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When someone is having their throat cut, a little blood to gush out of the mouth is very gruesome and effective! For the edible blood recipe, mix 200ml water with 300ml golden syrup and add 5 teaspoons red food colouring and a couple of drops of either green or blue food colouring.

 

For the normal type, just mix the food colouring with yellow detergent – simple as that! Both should wash out easily.

 

 

 

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Ah good old Sweeney Todd, I do hope your not having any problems with the chair? :P Seem to have got it from the same place as me. For the Pies, I recommend (if you have the time) making a mould, and making them out of Latex! It's really good, and reuseable. Just fill them with angel delight and you're away!
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An intriguing way I stumbled over on youtube is this one:

 

 

although I have to say I haven't tested it yet myself. But bearing in mind I'll be staging Sweeney todd just before christmas I might be testing it soon ^^

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An intriguing way I stumbled over on youtube is this one:

 

 

although I have to say I haven't tested it yet myself. But bearing in mind I'll be staging Sweeney todd just before christmas I might be testing it soon ^^

 

Frankly wouldn't want to be daubing myself up with Potassium Thiocyanate at all, let alone in the same place every night for a run, and much less on the throat. It's pretty nasty stuff.

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The last time I worked on Sweeney Todd I believe we were able to borrow a barber's chair from a traditional old hair cuttery that had once supported four seats but was down to only one barber still working. We didn't worry about the full "down the chute" functionality...the basic tilt looked fine and we covered the actual exits with a blackout and a rather good (if I do say so myself) sound effect of some heavy sacks (and a cabbage for the head) travelling down a wooden incline, complete with some stereo effects to show the travel from stage right to stage left and up to down.

 

Bob

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  • 2 weeks later...

PIES - I just wondered wht others have used for pies short of going to Asda and buying loads - would prefer something lighter than a pie to eat perhaaps cake or patter based. Any thoughts?

For the production I worked on my wife made the prop pies out of salt dough pastry and painted/varnished them to make them look a little less anaemic and the edible pies with normal pastry and a small amount of (I think) root veg as the filling, these weren't too "heavy" to eat. As she made both she was also able to match the style of the two sorts quite easily.

 

Edit: Ah she's just informed me "fried onion and roasted sweetpotato chunks. homemade hotwater crust pie using Trex"

 

David.

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and as if by magic I appear.

I was so proud of my real pies I made them an entry on my Deviantart account.

Vegetarian "meat" pies

For the one cast member who didn't want to eat any of the pie, I asked her to at least break it in half so it looks like it was eaten at some point. During the "More Hot Pies" scene, it'll probably be so busy that people won't notice them not being eaten for real... but the cast member in question was playing Toby so she was basically on her own on the stage during one scene and it would have been a bit odd for Toby to not eat the pie at all and then ask for another one, etc. I'm neurotic about these things. Apparently I also put normal cubed (I think boiled) potato in with the roasted sweet potato cubes and fried onion. Maybe some salt and pepper too. They weren't bad and one cast member had to be told to stop trying to eat it all because he had to sing in the next scene.

 

The salt dough pies were pretty ugly and basically build around a ball of foil so they had any chance of drying out. Be careful storing them as they do suck up damp so they're not really unheated garage or workroom fodder.

http://www.stargazy.org/purple/nov06/PB210026.JPG

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