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Thursday, December 15, 2011

Theater / Nerd My Favorite Props List

Posted by Brendan Kiley on Thu, Dec 15, 2011 at 11:27 AM

I just pulled The Lieutenant of Inishmore off my bookshelf and remembered that it has my favorite props list of all time. (My favorite stage direction is everyone else's favorite—the Shakespeare classic from The Winter's Tale, "exit, pursued by a bear.") But the props list for Inishmore is marvelous:

Dead black cat
Live black cat
Ginger cat
Dead ginger cat
Telephone
Cat's collar and name tag
3 guns
Wooden cross
Cat basket
Dismembered corpses
Pink bicycle

Razor
2 handguns
Cell phone
Bicycle pump
Air rifle
Bottle of poteen
Black shoe polish
Can of beans
Pieces of rope
Bowie knife
Cheese grater
Iron
Gag
Rucksack
Box of Frosties [cereal] and bowl

Now, that sounds like a play I want to see.

Comments (5) RSS

Oldest First Unregistered On Registered On Add a comment

Love the ginger cats, but a dead one?

Nope, not the play for me.

Posted by judybrowni on December 15, 2011 at 12:33 PM

McDonaugh's plays are so delightfully jarring, and are a stagecrafter's simultaneous dream and nightmare

Posted by nixor on December 15, 2011 at 2:17 PM

i think the Lonesome West prop list might be nearly as good.

Posted by singing cynic on December 15, 2011 at 2:34 PM

...and about seven gallons of stage blood.

Posted by Toe Tag on December 15, 2011 at 5:17 PM

Scott Joplin's opera Treemonisha has a similar stage direction in the "Frolic of the Bears" number: "Enter eight bears." Who then proceed to sing. In waltz time.

Posted by gkb1963 on December 15, 2011 at 5:46 PM