Blood in Neverwhere

There is a lot of blood in Neverwhere, a lot of blood. Ian Belcher, who plays the Marquis de Carabas, volunteered to supervise making all the blood needed. He experimented with different recipes and consistencies to create the perfect blood for different circumstances.

The one used for 'background gore' as Ian charmingly put it, is made from cornflour, water, food colouring and a dash of washing up liquid. While it is cheap the disadvantage of this recipe is that it needs to be cooked for a couple of hours.

Ian cooking up a cauldron of blood.

If more liquid blood is needed, for example if it needs to drip off a freshly used knife, then a different recipe with golden syrup, water and food colouring is used. Ian discovered that different brands of golden syrup give different blood qualities. The best was a generic brand, Tate &  Lyle wasn't thick enough.

The final type of blood is used in one scene that is lit with a red light so the red bloods wouldn't show. This one is made with black molasses and water. This blood has to be spat out by one of the characters. One of the stage management team injects a shot of the dark blood into her mouth using a turkey baster.

Testing the finished product

All the blood makes work for for the stage managers. The floor ends up covered in sticky syrup and part of the set wall will have to be repainted every night.

If you are interested in what goes on at Progress Theatre then sign up to this blog. Enter your email in the box under ‘about us’ and click on subscribe. New postings are made weekly so you won’t be swamped with emails. 

Coming up -

Neverwhere by Neil Gaiman,  Adapted by Robert Kauzlaric 19th - 28th January 2012

Auditions for Mindgame by Anthony Horowitz at Progress Theatre Tuesday 2nd February 2012 7.30pm or  Sunday 5th February 2pm

Art by Yasmina Reza 20th - 25th February 2012

See Progress Theatre website for details of all our productions and auditions.

Neverwhere and shopping Trolleys

Neverwhere is mostly based in a world under the London we know called 'London below'. This is a world populated by people with special powers, strange beasts, rat speakers and people who make a living out of things they find in the sewers. One place they all come together is the floating market - held in different venues where goods and services can be traded and a truce between warring factions is upheld.

There are traders selling dreams and nightmares, rubbish, various weapons, birds and information. The rubbish vendor has a trolley to sell her goods from and this has been lent to the theatre by local community Co-op, True Food.

True Food has a shop in Emmer Green, as well as running markets three evenings a week in other parts of Reading. They sell groceries, loose foods like nuts and seeds, fruit and vegetables - locally produced where possible and eco-friendly cleaning products. True Food recently won a BBC Food and Farming award 'Best Retail Initiative'.

The trolley full of tasty food but look out for it during Neverwhere full of rubbish.

Following the success with 39 Steps the first night of Neverwhere is going to be a Jelly Third Thursday event. For £10 (with no booking fee) you will get a ticket, pre-show drink and talk. See the Jelly website for details.

If you are interested in what goes on at Progress Theatre then sign up to this blog. Enter your email in the box under ‘about us’ and click on subscribe. New postings are made weekly so you won’t be swamped with emails. 

Coming up -

Neverwhere by Neil Gaiman,  Adapted by Robert Kauzlaric 19th - 28th January 2012
(There has been a lot of interest in this production from Neil Gaiman fans, tickets are selling fast so if you want to be sure of one then book soon.)

Auditions for Mindgame by Anthony Horowitz at Progress Theatre Tuesday 2nd February 2012 7.30pm or  Sunday 5th February 2pm

Art by Yasmina Reza 20th - 25th February 2012

See Progress Theatre website for details of all our productions and auditions.