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Post by londonpostie on Nov 29, 2019 21:25:25 GMT
Hobbyist writer here! I'm finding it hard to not include a horse in a particular play - it won't be charging up and down, in a stable is enough though walking around the stage a bit would be wonderful. In the real world it would probably have to be of the 'warhorse meets panto horse' breed but in my imagination it's seductively braying on the Lyttelton stage in front of spellbound full house/stable.
So your starter for ten is The Ferryman (rabbit, goose); have you seen any live non-humans ?
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Post by Jon on Nov 29, 2019 21:33:29 GMT
I’ve seen a dog in Shakespeare in Love and Legally Blonde, the rabbits and geese in The Ferryman and and a snake in Anthony and Cleopatra.
Oddly I’ve never seen a cat used as part of a play
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Post by Deleted on Nov 29, 2019 21:35:19 GMT
I saw a rat in The Woman In White, and a particularly docile pony in a panto once. I'm sure I've seen something more exotic but my memory is letting me down.
There was an unscheduled rat at the Adelphi, but it wasn't quite on stage.
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Post by Deleted on Nov 29, 2019 21:46:10 GMT
I have seen dogs in Curious Incident, but I think that's all. It's not often done in theatre. I did once see a circus with tigers, lions and camels which was... interesting. I also have performed on stage with panto ponies. They stink!
During one of the shows, I was waiting in the wings to go on and one of the horses must have eaten something or had IBS because it just expelled its bowels all over the floor. Thankfully it was behind a cloth but it sounded like Niagara. Poor thing.
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Post by david on Nov 29, 2019 21:46:58 GMT
Rat - Woman in White
Snake - Ant and Cleo
Rabbits / Geese - The Ferryman
Cat - Lt. of Inishmore
Dog - Downstate , The Hunt. Didn’t Imelda Staunton bring her own dog on stage in Gypsy?
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Post by catcat100 on Nov 29, 2019 21:59:57 GMT
Cat - Lieutenant of inishmore
Duck - The Wild Duck
Pigeons - Two Pigeons (ROH)
Dog - Downstate
Cant remember if the budgie in Julie (National) was real or not (obvs swapped at last minute)
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Post by lou105 on Nov 29, 2019 22:02:03 GMT
Several of the above. Plus the random fox in Unreachable at the Royal Court..
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Post by dippy on Nov 29, 2019 22:09:19 GMT
I saw the owl in Harry Potter and the Cursed Child but since it only lasted the one show I don't think that was a successful animal on stage. It was beautiful though and a little entertaining seeing them attempting to get it to do what they wanted but what they do instead now is absolutely fine.
Other than that I can only think of having seen dogs and rats (there's one in Curious isn't there? At least until the cage gets covered up and then it's obviously not there any more as it gets battered around) on stage.
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Post by NeilVHughes on Nov 29, 2019 22:13:30 GMT
The Goats at the Royal Court a few years ago deserve a mention.
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Post by peggysue on Nov 29, 2019 22:18:18 GMT
Mouse - Flowers for Algernon
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Post by justfran on Nov 29, 2019 22:47:22 GMT
I think there was a rat(s) in 1984 at the Playhouse?
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Post by crabtree on Nov 29, 2019 23:13:12 GMT
Birmingham Royal Ballet's Giselle features a horse I believe, and the other ballet La fille mal Gardee always has a pony. Yep and the usually well behaved pigeons in the Two Pigeons. We did Lieutenant of Inishmore and had a very good cat, that responded exactly as it was meant to do. And then there's Sandy in annie, and Crab the dog in Two gents. sensation smith staging Ben hUr at drury Lane in Victorian times had many many horses charging usually sideways on travellators, but eventually he got them running towards the audience. Did Dorothy Brock in 42nd street ever have a dog?
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Post by crabtree on Nov 29, 2019 23:15:22 GMT
The Ellen Kent operas usually have a novelty such as a huge eagle in Rigoletto and a horse in Carmen.
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Post by Deleted on Nov 30, 2019 3:32:51 GMT
King Lear with Sheep.
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Post by ukpuppetboy on Nov 30, 2019 8:15:42 GMT
I saw the owl in Harry Potter and the Cursed Child but since it only lasted the one show I don't think that was a successful animal on stage. It was beautiful though and a little entertaining seeing them attempting to get it to do what they wanted but what they do instead now is absolutely fine. This is fascinating dippy - I want to know all the owl gossip! Ironically it sounds like completely the opposite story to the Hedwig in the original movies who was so well behaved they hardly ever used the beautiful animatronic made by Jim Henson’s Creature Shop for Philosopher’s Stone. Perhaps they should have dusted him off and put a fresh set of batteries in for Cursed Child. I’m sure he’s just up the road in Leavesden. |
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Post by altamont on Nov 30, 2019 8:36:43 GMT
A monkey in Inherit the Wind at the Old Vic a decade ago
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Post by dippy on Nov 30, 2019 8:44:52 GMT
This is fascinating dippy - I want to know all the owl gossip! Ironically it sounds like completely the opposite story to the Hedwig in the original movies who was so well behaved they hardly ever used the beautiful animatronic made by Jim Henson’s Creature Shop for Philosopher’s Stone. Perhaps they should have dusted him off and put a fresh set of batteries in for Cursed Child. I’m sure he’s just up the road in Leavesden. This is what I wrote in the Harry Potter thread at the time: Definitely a real owl, it was meant to fly into one of the dress circle boxes but decided to fly to the one on the other side. This meant the animal handler ran up the stairs, across the back and down the other side to get it. Of course once he got there it decided to fly off again towards the originally intended box, however it ended up possibly at the bottom of the stairs at the edge of the circle rather than in the box. Then everyone clapped at something and it flew off. It was very distracting and the man in the box was shining his red torch and calling it to come back. Other than that I guess the only thing to add is that it eventually flew and landed upstage at the top of one of the arches on the set, it stayed there for quite a long time. I didn't see it leave but I can only imagine there was someone in the wings with a tasty treat and it finally decided the treat was worth it. |
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Post by Deleted on Nov 30, 2019 9:31:58 GMT
Goats & Chickens - Once on this Island
Dog - Finding Neverland
Dog - Nativity
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Post by emsworthian on Nov 30, 2019 9:55:52 GMT
The Ellen Kent operas usually have a novelty such as a huge eagle in Rigoletto and a horse in Carmen. Yes, I remember a horse - or possibly a donkey - in the production of Carmen I saw at the Kings, Southsea. I also remember a man following it around with a bucket and a shovel. |
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Post by anita on Nov 30, 2019 10:04:42 GMT
Dogs in "Annie" & "Chitty Chitty Bang Bang".
Rat & Birds in "Woman in White".
I have told before that one of the birds escaped & flew around at the opening night of "Woman in White" at the Palladium.
Lots of animals at circus's in the past - especially the tiger that weed in my youngest son's face.
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Post by tonyloco on Nov 30, 2019 10:29:24 GMT
I was going to mention the pony in La Fill mal gardée and the pigeons in The Two Pigeons ballets but crabtree beat me to it.
But nobody has mentioned the dogs in Chitty Chitty Bang Bang. I saw it at the Palladium a number of times and my pal Graham Hoadly who played several small roles in the show and covered a number of others said the dogs were horrible to work with. There were several teams of different breeds and the audience loved their scenes but the actors didn't! There was also one brilliant scene that later got cut in which one dog sat still while a rifle was fired but then was startled and ran off stage at some very quiet incident which I can no longer recall.
But the most surprising instance of dogs on stage was in the Crazy Gang revue Young at Heart that I saw at the Victoria Palace in 1960. The scene was the front garden of a pretty house with a white wooden picket fence and the members of the Crazy Gang came on stage each with a dog on a lead and the dogs proceeded to pee up against the fence while the yellow liquid ran downstage towards the footlights, presumably to be collected in some kind of gutter. The audience thought this was hilarious and the scene was received with gales of laughter, although I thought it was just in very bad taste and not in the least bit funny – but what do I know about humour in the theatre, me who hated One Man, Two Guvnors?
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Post by tonyloco on Nov 30, 2019 10:45:05 GMT
But nobody has mentioned the dogs in Chitty Chitty Bang Bang.
Yes, Anita has just done so ahead of me!
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Post by Someone in a tree on Nov 30, 2019 10:45:31 GMT
Rat - Woman in White Snake - Ant and Cleo Rabbits / Geese - The Ferryman Cat - Lt. of Inishmore Dog - Downstate , The Hunt. Didn’t Imelda Staunton bring her own dog on stage in Gypsy? Correct. She also had the dog backstage with her when she played Sweeney |
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Post by Dr Tom on Nov 30, 2019 10:52:19 GMT
I'm sure I've seen a few, but the first ones that come to mind are dogs (in Annie and The Wizard of Oz). The more recent productions of The Wizard of Oz have moved to puppets, but I haven't yet seen that done in Annie.
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Post by anthony40 on Nov 30, 2019 16:50:33 GMT
I'm surprised no one mentioned the dog in Wizard of Oz!
I never actually saw that but I did see agoat in an Arthur Miller play with Zoe Wannamaker in it at The National
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