Break-Apart Mast for Comedy of Errors

Hello everyone!

I'm just hoping to pick a few brains... I need some ideas for a mechanism of such that will hold two pieces of a "ship's mast" together until it needs to break in half. This mast would be horizontal and held by actors (as though they are floating in water after a shipwreck) and then would need to break apart with an actor holding onto each end.

This is for the show "Comedy of Errors" were the twins are separated at sea. I don't want to use velcro because the director would like the actors to be able to pull on the mast a bit as though they are being violently tossed about. So this presents my problem...

How could I rig such a thing? I was thinking that I could make the mast out of sonotube that is precut into two pieces so that it is light for the actors to hold. But what could the mechanism be that holds the pieces together until the right time that they should split?
Thank you for any advice you can give!
 
How about several barrel bolts? While they won't help on "lateral" movement of pulling the mast apart, they would keep it stable. They are also inexpensive, available everywhere and take paint.
 
How would I arrange those so that the actors could pull it apart at the right moment?

Just flip the bolt and pull. One actor can flip one or two bolts and the other actor can flip the others. Or for that matter, just pull the mast "halves" apart. If stability is an issue, you can use a couple of latch closures (like the ones on toolboxes or trunks). Most are reasonably cheap - especially if you use zinc plated closures as opposed to brass.

At the appropriate time, the actors unfasten the latches, barrel bolts or whatever.

Another thought - rare earth magnets. I've been surprised at how strong they are. You can mount them in the inside of the sonotube and then "break" them apart when necessary.
 
Could you rig some sort of pin hinge arrangement which can be undone by the actors? If not pin hinges, some sort of latch which is easily undone by the actors.
 
Thank you everyone! I did a tube inside of a tube sort of arrangement with super strong magnets. The magnets didn't hold though. And the actors broke the mast by the last performance. Yup, they managed to break sonotube. High schoolers are often reckless with their props. *sigh*
I appreciate all of the input! :)
 

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