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.
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.
You can visit this bustling part of the theatre on guided tours of the National Theatre — where you get ushered from concrete auditorium to concrete auditorium, while being fed stories about on-stage mishaps, and Laurence Olivier, the NT's first Artistic Director, bombing around London in his black cab which he spray-painted the same purple as the seats in the auditorium here that was named in his honour.
That's a paid-for experience, but if you're looking for a thriftier alternative, you can visit the NT's scenery and prop-making department without paying a penny. The Sherling Backstage Walkway is open to the public for free Wednesdays and Saturdays, 12pm-6pm every week, affording you an overhead view of the various workshops and assembly areas in which props and scenery — almost all of which is made in-house — are put together, painted, shifted about, disassembled and recycled.
Whether you're an acolyte of the theatre, or just looking for somewhere interesting to duck out of the rain, this a fascinating place to come. You'll see 'Drum Road' a corridor filled with oversized stage bibelots, and overlooked by a giant portrait of Laurence Olivier. Titbits of info are displayed up on the wall (did you know that wigs and fake beards are made from the belly hair of albino yaks?), and every time you visit, there'll be something new to see.
Plus, if you're looking to stage — you can hire everything from suits of armour to hospital beds. Don't suppose you're interested in a massive bloody horse head?
You can access the Sherling Backstage Walkway is open on Wednesdays and Saturdays, 12pm-6pm only, for free. Entry is via the foyer of the Dorfman Theatre.
