So having talked it through with Rorie who runs the work/paintshop, we have three choices:

Keep all the blocking except for the planned table collapse and brace and reinforce the table properly. - the fight scene hasn’t been blocked yet so we could have him flip it instead. Only problem is I think the director has been getting slightly frustrated with us not having the budget to have that many consumables like lamps breaking every show, but we have actually bought the table, so we can destroy it a bit, so it seems a shame to not be able to have it collapse.

Have the table collapse and not have them sit or lean on it, as has been blocked already throughout the show. This obviously won’t work super well, but we would get to keep the nice noisy violent table collapse.

Buy a new table that can both collapse and be sat on. Which is what we’re trying at the moment, but it’s going to be expensive because the table needs to be 800x800mm, and there aren’t many.

It’s a little frustrating, especially as I had to drive the van in a 400 mile round trip to pick up the table, and we’ve been working on it for a while. We also open two weeks today, so it would have been good to have the table before now, but the set people held us up a little sourcing ridiculously expensive carpet that we were no way going to put in the budget. 

BUT HEY.

Sherlock Holmes exhibition, round 2

From the top:

Jennifer Wilson’s suitcase

Fletcher’s sign

A semtex vest

A plateful of Sherlock Holmeses (why? idfk)

More Jeremy Brett goodness

Lord Blackwood’s coffin from Ritchie Holmes

More props from Ritchie Holmes

The typewriter from the end of A Game of Shadows

A letter from Doyle to Dr Joseph Bell about him being the inspiration for Sherlock Holmes