SCENERY: Onstage Hangings

[Scaenicus]

In a high school production of The Beggar's Opera, I will have to figure out how to safely hang one of our actors by a noose.  The idea proposed in the book is that an actor puts a noose around his neck and drops through a trapdoor, only to be safely caught by a net or mattress, and a dummy is promptly hanged instead.  Another switch is made in this manner when the actor comes back to life.

However, our trapdoor may or may not allow for this sort of stunt.  Someone had the idea of hooking up the actor to a rock climbing harness and attaching the rope to that with a loose one around the neck for the audience's benefit.  When the rope is yanked up, it looks as if the actor is being hanged, but he is actually supported by the harness instead of his neck.

Any other suggestions?

[KMC]

If you are going to hang an actor you must hire a professional rigging company.  You will need military grade cable and rated equipment that most theatres do not have in stock, nor do they have the personnel qualified to implement.

Hire a professional rigging company, end of story.

[Scaenicus]

I don't know if we can afford that.  We want to avoid a dummy if possible, but if our budget does not allow for the actual hanging of the actor, we might have to modify the script and 'hang' him behind some scrim or offstage.

[KMC]

Well, if you can't afford a rigging company to hang an actor and don't want to use a dummy that's obvious to the audience, you may want to get creative with lighting or scenic effects. 

[zayit shachor]

I'm with you on finding a way to do it offstage.  I remember reading in a Q&A somewhere:  Q: "How can I hang an actor onstage?"  A: "Don't."

[chops]

Use a black out and a trap door sound effect.  This way the audience still gets the idea that someone was hung but no one gets hurt. including your budget.  Whatever you do do no put a secured noose around an actors neck.  There is always the chance that they could fall off the platform and hang themselves. 

[centaura]

When I was in high school we hung and actor for a production of Jesus Christ Superstar.  He wore a harness that his line was clipped to, and the noose wasn't attached to anything, it just lay loosely around his neck.  The actor was hanging himself, he climbed up the pole, stood on a small platform, hooked his line into the hook on the harness he was wearing under his costume, stood there for some lines, and then slumped into the harness for the 'hanging'.  Our director had worked with professional riggers in the past and had a good grounding on harness safety.  If you don't have anyone with rigging or rock climbing experience, I wouldn't reccomend trying it yourself.

-Centaura

[Jessie_K]

Use a black out and a trap door sound effect.  This way the audience still gets the idea that someone was hung but no one gets hurt. including your budget.  Whatever you do do no put a secured noose around an actors neck.  There is always the chance that they could fall off the platform and hang themselves. 

Even if they don't actually hang themselves,  the potential for injury is quite high when dealing with any kind of ligature.  Don't mess around with it.  It's like pointed a gun loaded with blanks at your head.  Too risky.  Hire a professional rigging company or not at all.

When we did Chicago we had our actress place a very loose rope hoop around her head, then cut to blackout with a sound effect and a stylized projection of a woman hanging.  However, if you are not already using projections in your show, this might not work.

[philimbesi]

Actual hanging and flying HAVE HAVE HAVE to be handled by professional riggers, period dot end of sentence, walk away. 

In a production of crucible I directed I had my John Proctor and my Sara Goode up on a solid platform with nooses that had enough hidden slack to reach the deck around their neck, that way if anything crazy happed in the dark they might get hurt from the fall, but that would be it.  When the time came for the hanging, after Elizabeth's last line I had  the lights bump out, with the sound effect of the trap door and noose played in the background... I heard people gasp in the dark. 

[sailor_sam]

Theater makes magic, not a death certificate.

Don't do it. 

[Mac Calder]

Fact: In many countries, a noose is considered a lethal weapon.

Do you really want to have a noose on your stage? What you can do in place of a real noose is to wrap one piece of rope around your 'noose', leaving enough at the bottom to make the loop - then, using a needle and thread, use one stitch to create the loop.

When I was taught this trick by a props master, he called it a "Stagemans Noose" (as opposed to a hangmans noose)

This ensures that if the noose ever gets caught on something, it will not entrap the wearers neck, and also only result in a slight bruise.

As for the hanging part, well I can only echo what others have said "DON'T!" - two reasons, a dummy and scrim look more realistic - the whole "short, sharp drop" as opposed to the "controlled lower and stop.", and the other - well it is a task that requires great skill and risk assessment.

[Celeste_SM]

I'm surprised this thread hasn't been closed already.  Usually the answer is "consult a professional" and no room for further input.  I'm glad to see it is still open.

My two cents:  A friend of mine was involved with a show in college with a noose hanging effect.  The actor was standing on a narrow flown platform and the noose was hung from the same batton as the platform.  In dress rehearsal the actors cape somehow got caught on a line upstage of his line.  In the process of freeing himself from his cape (which was starting to strangle him as the upstage line flew out) he slipped off the platform, and was caught by his own noose, which broke away (using the stitch method described by Mac above) and then he fell approximately 4 feet to the ground.  The greatest injuries were actually caused by the strangulation from the cape.  But the lesson I walked away with is that you don't mess around with nooses.  If that hadn't been a breakaway noose, the actor could have been seriously injured or killed - hung by a stage noose.

[avkid]

Get a dummy with a wig and costume and hang it behind a sheer scrim with lighting that shadows but doesn't reveal anything critical.
The audience will be none the wiser, and nobody will be dead either!!

[BalletPSM]

I'm surprised this thread hasn't been closed already.  Usually the answer is "consult a professional" and no room for further input.  I'm glad to see it is still open.

From our community standards thread in the "announcements" forum:

"Opinions, not facts: Items on SMNetwork are generally other users' opinions. The Call Board is not responsible for the accuracy of any posts and is not liable for any damage or loss that may result from your reliance on what other users have said."

As we have always made clear -- any advice or thoughts given in this forum are purely the opinion or experience of the poster.  You should never take anything here as professional consultation or fact.  We can keep a thread such as this open for people to offer their advice and experiences -- if nothing else, to help show the OP that the most important issue is SAFETY, and that there are many ways to execute (no pun intended) a successful onstage hanging. 

And just to reiterate....when dealing with stagecraft of this manner, you should always, always consider safety first -- if this means bringing in a professional rigging/flight company, then do it. 

[LiLz]

I worked on a production of "Billy Budd" ... we punched a hole in the ceiling for the hanging scene ... Billy crawls out of the audiences sightlines ... special lighting, Sound FX ... Actors left on stage react to the "hanging" ... audience is incredibly moved.  The great thing about theatre, as opposed to TV or film, is that audiences don't have to be spoon fed every moment in order to share it emotionally.  I'm hanging with the pack on this one - get professionals or get artsy.