Gothic Horror
Victoriana
Often when producing a show that is set in a time period beyond 50 or so years into the past it can be difficult to find items the script calls for without either cutting heavily into the budget or over-using delicate antiques. The trick is to produce items that look like they absolutely belong in the time and place, but are easily maintained for the run of a show.
For this production of '"Dracula" we required a strait Jacket and several pairs of children's shoes all circa 1890s. The straight Jacket needed to be put onto the character of Renfield in full view of the audience but also easily and quickly removed backstage. the Children's shoes did not need to be worn by anyone but needed to be distressed and covered in blood.
For this production of '"Dracula" we required a strait Jacket and several pairs of children's shoes all circa 1890s. The straight Jacket needed to be put onto the character of Renfield in full view of the audience but also easily and quickly removed backstage. the Children's shoes did not need to be worn by anyone but needed to be distressed and covered in blood.
Victorian Strait Jacket
The strait jackets I was able to source for sale were the mid 20th century institutional kind made of bleached canvas with webbing for straps. I wanted a darker, meaner look not only to serve the genre but also to invoke a time predating modern standards in medical hygiene and antiseptics.
The industrial Revolution drove many rapid advancements in medicine and thus a profound plethora of cooky and novel brainstorms to meet the demands of a growing field i.e. searching the web for "Victorian strait jacket" brings an astonishing array of different looks and types spanning the 19th and early 20th century. I was particularly drawn to the types made for Houdini to escape from. The combination of the leather and canvas have great contrasts and the profusion of straps gives a foreboding and impregnable appearance. I'm sure, seeing as these were not made to simply restrain a man within the closed doors of an institution but rather to visually communicate to a captive audience that no mortal man could possibly escape it's restraints, that this was exactly Houdini's purpose. |
I spent very little money in making this piece. To help facilitate the look of dirtiness and squalor within a Victorian insane asylum I used scraps of old canvas that were already lightly stained and aged and I dipped them down even further. the "leather" is some sort of fabric treated to look like weathered leather that had been purchased for a different show and was therefore very lightweight - a convenience for the actor- and easy to sew - a convenience for me. The straps are made from scraps of leather and old belts I had around my shop. Because I was using only scraps of materials I already had, I had to trim down the amount of leather used; I would have preferred more, like the Houdini originals. As you can see, the straps in the back were made to release via snaps for a quick-out backstage. To make the body of the jacket I simply altered a basic men's shirt pattern to open in the back and elongated the arms to reach fully around the body.
Victorian Children's Shoes
THE WESTMINSTER GAZETTE, 25 SEPTEMBER EXTRA SPECIAL
THE HAMPSTEAD HORROR ANOTHER CHILD INJURED THE "BLOOFER LADY" We have just received intelligence that another child, missed last night, was only discovered late in the morning...It has the same tiny wound in the throat as has been noticed in other cases. It was terribly weak, and looked quite emaciated. It too, when partially restored, had the common story to tell of being lured away by the "bloofer lady". "Dracula"' Chapter 13 Actual Victorian and Edwardian baby shoes are readily available for purchase on the internet, I think probably because a lot were produced, only worn for a little while before they were grown out of, and then saved as mementos of childhood. they are, however, not inexpensive. At the time I was working on this show they were typically going for around 50 dollars a pair and many of them were in very delicate condition. I needed at least three pairs and needed to spritz them with blood. I could not justify spending 150 dollars on antiques only to destroy them for a 5 minute scene of a play. I looked into buying doll shoes instead; they proved to be also rather expensive and probably too small to either be believable as actual children's shoes or even visible from stage. So I decided to make them myself out of materials I already had on hand.
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I studied some images of doll shoe patterns on line to wrap my mind around the basic pattern pieces of a child's shoe and the shapes particular to various Victorian styles. I made a mock up of each in paper first, then one in some canvas material and then finally in the leather scraps I had chosen. I stitched the upper portions together and glued the soles on. I spent virtually no money in producing these.