The Scottish Play is never bloodless. Nothing can be that involves regicide and child murder. But you don’t always see as much blood on stage as you will see in our production. Director John Langs determined from an early point in development that he envisioned that blood will have (LOTS of) blood.
Thus began a journey for Robin Macartney, our Props Designer. Not only did she need to create stage blood that looked good, there would also be moments where the stage blood would potentially be ingested so there needed to be at least some non-toxic, edible blood. There would also be blood getting on costumes, so although costumes are washed after every performance, the stage blood needed to not stain the fabrics.
Here are some photos and videos from some of our blood tests, ending with the final product as it appears on stage.
