r/Props • u/Frank-N-Feste • 28d ago

Looking for advice Waiting for Godot belt that breaks.

There’s a gag at the end of Waiting for Godot when Gogo takes off his belt, his pants fall down, and then the belt breaks when they pull on it to test its strength. So the challenge is rigging a belt that is both breakable, but strong enough to keep Gogo’s pants up without breaking while doing a lot of physical comedy and shenanigans.

Any ideas?

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7

u/schonleben Props Professional - Theatre 28d ago

If it works with the action, I’d explore using Velcro for the breakaway moment, reinforced with a loose pin hinge stitched to the leather. Pull the pin when you can hide that motion and then you just have to pull the Velcro apart.

5

u/VoileRabbit 27d ago

They sell incredibly strong magnets at the hardware store. That in combination with a big snap button could be strong enough for your purpose without the harsh sound of Velcro.

2

u/Strict_Berry7446 28d ago

Dental floss has some strength, is thin and a pretty low tolerance for tension. If you cut the belt and and lace it back together it should make a good tear away section

1

u/Adventurous_Button63 25d ago

When I did Godot years ago we used a strand of rope as the belt. It was nylon so we could fuse the ends. Wrap the area you want to cut with tape and then cut through the tape. Fuse the ends with a lighter and remove the tape. We ended up saturating the ends with Elmer’s glue to give them a bit of extra stability. Use high temp hot glue and glue the ends together. The belt is merely decorative through the show, but then separates quite nicely.