It’s Pat, a robo-tortoise that takes direction well
Pat, the tortoise in Tom Stoppard’s “Jumpers,†began life here as an imported Chinese toy in an outdoor market. Spotted, purchased and delivered to the National Theatre’s Paul Wanklin by his alert brother-in-law, the future theater star turned out to be not just cheap but durable.
Equally important, this turtle was adaptable. According to Fraser Burchill, head of the National’s property-making department, Wanklin was able to disengage the toy of such nontortoise-like habits as singing while strengthening and adapting its walking mechanism.
Weighing in at just at few pounds, Pat is referred to in the play as “specially trained†for his never-to-happen race against philosopher George Moore’s lost hare, Thumper.
Instead, he wanders the stage, operated by remote control via the stage manager in the wings, when he isn’t hand carried -- and talked to -- by Moore.
Though he never had a tortoise, Stoppard acknowledges that tortoises are often found in his plays.
“It’s a controllable beast,†Stoppard explains. “It doesn’t run around the stage barking and urinating. It’s a safe animal for a show.â€
Not that there aren’t problems. Simon Russell Beale, the actor who plays Moore, recalls a “nightmare†performance in which, during a key bedroom scene between Moore and wife Dotty (played by Essie Davis), “the tortoise started ticking like a bomb. He was upstaging us massively.â€
But this creature is usually quite reliable. Once its mechanisms were reworked and it was painted to look more natural, Burchill says, it has needed only minor repairs. Augmented by a number of body doubles for certain dangerous scenes in the play, the prop was transported from London to New York, where the only touch-up has been repainting its feet because, Burchill says, they “got a little bit worn.â€
The National’s prop department animated lobsters for the recent play “Dinner†and had practice making an animated tortoise for Stoppard’s play “Arcadia.â€
That play’s “star,†Lightning, was apparently so realistic, Stoppard says, that several people wrote in complaining about cruelty to animals.
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