Hi all,

A friend and I are in charge of getting props for the theatre's production of "Misery" in June 2005. As we are the last show of the season, and a small one (2 actors), the budget is small, so we're going to have to beg and borrow a lot of props. Purchasing is a last resort.

One item that is particularly interesting is the "large, rusty axe" that Annie uses to chop off Paul's foot. It's done on stage in view of the audience and is lit by strobe effect. Obviously we don't want to use a real axe. So one with a foam rubber head seems in order. But how do we deal with the need for it to look as realistic as possible.

I've heard of other productions where the scene - which is supposed to be terrifying - causes the audience to *laugh*. We want them to gasp - not laugh. I've thought that to have blood get on the axe while she's chopping we could have a sponge with stage blood on it.

I've thought about using something along the lines of a sandpaper sponge (dark gray and dense foam) - but I'm wondering that using duct tape to pinch in one end to make a blade would look just that - a duct-taped sponge on the end of an axe handle.

Any ideas - even of where to purchase something realistic but safe - would be appreciated.

The only other 'prop' we've thought about creating from foam is a mask for our 'fake Paul' (the director added this in to give our real Paul enough time to make the costume changes and get in to position.) Annie will be carrying him as close as 2 feet to the audience. (We were able to borrow a cloth dummy from another company - but he's a blank slate, so he'll need some kind of disguise.)

Thanks!

Just a word of fair warning: Attaching a foam
axe-head to a solid wood axe-handle is not much of
a problem.

The problem arises when the actress using the
foam axe gets over-enthusiastic with her
performance and relies on the softness of the foam
to cushion her blow to the poor actor's ankle.

Getting rapped on the bone by a solid wood
axe-handle is not fun, although it may help your actor
portray the pain involved more convincingly.

Another option is to cut leg-holes in the mattress on
which the actor rests. The actor bends his knees
and his feet are actually dangling below the bed,
safely out of the way. The bedclothes cover this from
the audience's perspective.

Fake legs & feet (from the knees down) are strapped
to the actor's actual legs and covered by the pajama
pants. If you can't find convincing feet, there's no
reason why the character can't be wearing warm
woolen socks to cover them.

This way, your actress can whack the heck out of
your actor's legs with little danger of actually hurting
him.

Good luck!

Perhaps you can skirt the issue of the dummy's
head by having the thing wrapped in bandages like
Claude Rains in "The Invisible Man".
Your first time seeing Paul on the bed would have
Annie unwrapping his bandages, revealing his face.

I've never seen "Misery" as a stage play, so I don't
know if this works with your blocking. Just a
suggestion.

As my grandfather always said, "Free advice is worth
whatever you paid for it."

Best of luck!