You never know what you'll see dangling backstage at the NT. Image: Londonist
No animals are hurt in the making of the National Theatre's productions, though it doesn't always look that way judging from a visit to the prop department.
Dangling from the assembly area when we're there is the decapitated head of beautiful white horse. Before it hovered ominously here — the base of its broad neck smothered in stage blood — it briefly appeared above the Olivier stage in the NT's production of Bacchae. Now retired, the lower part of the horse will be recycled, although its head is too magnificent to destroy, and will wind up as a serious talking point some place or other.
A portrait of Sir Larry keeps a watch over Drum Road. Image: Londonist
Stashed away elsewhere in the props department is Pat the 'stunt tortoise' used in a 2003 production of the Tom Stoppard play Jumpers. Pat — who, it should be pointed out, is not a real tortoise — was stamped on and 'crushed to death' night after night, a blood pack secreted beneath its part-detachable shell. So realistic was this death-by-foot, the NT received a flood of complaints from people aghast that a live tortoise was being sacrificed every night. Chuffed with themselves, the props department pinned up every letter they received on the wall.
