Unarmed Stage Combat E-Book

Philip d'Orleans

• Herausgeber: Crowood
• Kategorie: Geisteswissenschaft
• Sprache: Englisch

Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2021

Beschreibung

Stage combat is a constantly evolving craft, responsive to the growing demands of an ever changing industry and an ever more perceptive audience. Experienced fight director, teacher and examiner Philip d'Orleans shows how to respond to this challenge through innovative techniques and original choreography. Unarmed Stage Combat explores the fundamental performance principles of violence on stage, before a dedicated series of chapters focus on over forty specific unarmed combat techniques, including non-contact slaps, punches, kicks and chokes as well as controlled contact and the illusion of falling. Each technique is beautifully illustrated with step-by-step photos and detailed practical guidance through the preparation, action and reaction to the movement, as well as the key safety principles, common pitfalls and staging variables. Supported by stunning fight photos from professional productions, this indispensable handbook is equally as valuable for beginners at the start of their career or preparing for their fight performance exam as it will be for seasoned professionals seeking to refresh their knowledge.

Leseprobe

Unarmed StageCombat

Jab punch. TOM ZIEBELL

Unarmed StageCombat

Philip d’Orléans

First published in 2020 byThe Crowood Press LtdRamsbury, MarlboroughWiltshire SN8 2HR

[e-mail]

www.crowood.com

This e-book first published in 2020

© Philip d’Orléans 2020

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopy, recording, or any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publishers.

British Library Cataloguing-in-Publication DataA catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.

ISBN 978 7 78500 786 6

DISCLAIMER

This book is intended to be used as a reference or an aide memoire during or after a stage combat course. It is not intended to replace the instruction of a good teacher. No book can entirely replicate the benefits of having an instructor in the room with you, guiding your learning and guarding your safety.

Neither should this be used as a teaching manual by untrained combat teachers. There are far too many risks associated with creating the illusion of violence. Do not be tempted to add your lack of experience to them. If you wish to become a stage combat teacher, there are organizations available to provide the necessary training in the many other aspects required to be a good teacher, beyond a simple knowledge of technique.

The author and the publisher cannot be held responsible for any injuries resulting from use of the information in this book.

CONTENTS

D

EDICATION AND

A

CKNOWLEDGEMENTS

F

OREWORD

I

NTRODUCTION

P

ART

I: F

UNDAMENTAL

P

RINCIPLES

1

A B

RIEF

T

HEATRICAL

C

ONTEXT

2

D

O

T

HESE

T

ECHNIQUES

A

CTUALLY

W

ORK

?

3

A

CT

W

HILE

Y

OU

F

IGHT

4

T

HE

A

CTOR

’

S

T

WO

H

EADS

5

S

AFETY

6

W

HO

S

EES

W

HAT AND

W

HAT

W

ORKS

W

HERE

P

ART

II: P

ERFORMANCE

S

PECIFICS

7

M

USIC OF

T

HE

F

IGHT

8

P

AIN

9

P

ICTURIZATION

10

T

HE

C

UEING

S

YSTEM AND

O

THER

S

UPPORT

S

TRUCTURES

11

K

NAPPING

12

W

ARMING

U

P AND

S

TRETCHING

P

ART

III: T

HE

E

SSENTIAL

T

ECHNIQUES

13

S

LAPS

14

P

UNCHES

(N

ON

-C

ONTACT

)

15

K

ICKS

(N

ON

-C

ONTACT

)

16

C

HOKES AND

R

ELEASES

17

C

ONTACT

18

T

HE

I

LLUSION OF

F

ALLING

19

S

TAGE VS

. C

AMERA

C

ONCLUSION

G

LOSSARY

B

IBLIOGRAPHY

I

NDEX

DEDICATION

This book is dedicated to my wife Fredi, without whose support it would never have been completed, and to my parents, who instilled in me a lifelong love of books.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

It’s impossible to embark on a project of this size without an enormous amount of support. These are the people and institutions without whom this book would not have been possible: Aaron Anderson, Mark Bentley, Georgie Britton, Sheila Burnett, Wolf Christian, Alex Clifton, Charlotte Conquest, Giles Croft, Martin Dodd, Andrew Dornan, Jane Elliot-Webb, Sarah Gobran, Martin Hayward, Theresa Heskins, Sam Hodges, Harris Cain, Gordon Kemp, Jonathan Kiley, Janet Lawson, Kit Lawson, Jinny Lofthouse, Dr Chris Main, John McFarland, Kate McGregor, Cecilie Mosli, Nathaniel Marten, David Parrish, Matt Pinches, Eunice Roberts, Richard Ryan, Julia Schafranek, Helene Scharka, Kit Thacker, Fliss Walton, Joe Windley, Bret Yount, Carole Vincer; all of my many friends in the BASSC; and the fight team of the ROH 2018 production of Simon Boccanegra.

Special thanks to Drama Studio London for providing space for the photo shoot.

Thanks and gratitude are also due to the photographers: Andrew Billington, Sheila Burnett, Mark Carline, Rob Davidson, Mark Dean, Mike Eddowes, Øyvind Eide, Luke MacGregor, Keith Pattison, Matt Pereira, Reinhard Reidinger, Robin Savage, Craig Sugden, Betty Zapata and Tom Ziebell.

Thanks and more gratitude are due to the theatres who have provided photographs: The National Theatre of Norway, The Storyhouse Chester, The New Vic Theatre Stoke-on-Trent, Nottingham Playhouse, Creation Oslo, Theatre 6, Guildford Shakespeare Company, Nuffield Theatres Southampton, Qdos Entertainment, Vienna’s English Theatre, UK Productions/Flying Entertainment, and Novel Theatre.

Thanks, too, to all of my friends and colleagues in the industry, all of the students I’ve taught who have driven me to be better at my craft, and all of the wonderfully creative performers I’ve collaborated with in my career, many of whom are represented in the images presented herein.

Finally, none of this could have happened without the unwavering support of my wife Fredi.

FOREWORD

When I offered to write this foreword, I must admit my first question was, Why do we need another book on stage combat? There are many already in print, so what does this one add to the accumulated knowledge? Taking a closer look made it obvious that there is a clear difference between this offering and the others available. And that difference is down to the author’s combined skillsets.

Philip d’Orléans stepped into my role at The Royal Academy of Dramatic Art when I left to work on the Warner Brothers’ film Troy. This was at a point when he had been a member of Equity’s register of fight directors for a couple of years and his fight-directing career was beginning to take off. Since then he has worked constantly at theatres all over the UK and internationally, as far afield as South Korea. Crucially, in all that time he has never stopped teaching and learning.

This is where the vital difference lies between this book and others in this field: it brings together more than twenty years’ experience of teaching stage combat at many British drama schools, including seventeen years at RADA, combined with a successful fight-directing career. There is a symbiotic link between the two professions, where the fight director is constantly being presented with challenges and then brings that hard-earned knowledge back to the classroom, providing students with the most up-to-date feedback of what the industry currently demands. From the opposite perspective, years of teaching not only allow the refinement of the raw material used by the fight director, but also engender an ability to explain complex techniques with clarity.

It is more unusual than you might think to find someone who is not only good at what they do, but can also teach their subject to an equally high standard. Philip is one of those rare professionals who is able to take his deep theoretical and practical knowledge and present it to students in an accessible and effective format.

Not only is this book extremely practical, it also presents elements of the performance of violence that have never been discussed in print before. It digs deep into every process that an actor must consider to create a strong fight performance and it explains in great detail how to do that well, and safely. Safety is overwhelmingly important and has to be the shared responsibility of everyone involved in the training and performing of violence. Above all, this book describes how student, actor, instructor and fight director can best fulfil that mission. It is clear on when and how each role has to focus on safety and breaks the information down into easily remembered principles.

As a stunt coordinator I benefit from working with well-trained actors. They make my work process simpler and the result more effective, and they increase production value. The more skills an actor brings to the set, the easier they are to integrate with the stunt team. I have no doubt that the information presented in this book will not only enhance the training of a new generation of actors, but will also become a useful tool for the working actor.

Richard RyanStunt Coordinator, Vikings

INTRODUCTION

This book is part of a long tradition: ever since people have been fighting and writing, fight masters have recorded their personal theories and approaches to self-defence. Stage combat manuals are the latest variation of those records. What all have in common is that they are written primarily as a reminder of knowledge already acquired through long practice. They are used mainly for reference, or in support of learning in a classroom, rather than solo learning. If this text is used without an instructor present, great care must be taken to establish all the safety protocols before committing to any action.

Costume pull. TOM ZIEBELL

With that in mind, what is the best way to use this book? It contains a series of information chapters looking at the broader aspects of stage combat as a performance discipline, alongside a series of chapters focused on unarmed combat techniques. Read it cover to cover or dip into it, as required. Both are appropriate. If you do choose to dip, I strongly recommend that you read the whole of Chapter 5 on safety before proceeding to the technical explanations. At the very least this may clarify terminology and principles that might be unfamiliar to you; or it may lead you to information that you might not have considered before.

Each technique chapter in Part Three looks briefly at the reality of a kick, a punch, and so on, then generally at the safety elements specific to these techniques and what works where in terms of staging, before moving onto the techniques themselves. Each technique is accompanied by four images: a simple graphic illustrating the staging; a body outline showing the technical sequence; a photo-strip showing four stages of the technique; and a composite photograph demonstrating the technique.

The book also discusses how to create a character-based fight and is illustrated with pictures of fights I’ve choreographed as a professional fight director. I must register a debt of gratitude to all of the theatres, photographers and individuals who have willingly provided photos; this book is far richer for their contributions. Many pictures show weapons, but nevertheless support the various themes under discussion.

I’ve used the terms ‘Attacker’ and ‘Victim’ as they clearly delineate who is the aggressor at each particular moment. Many of the other terms that are specific to the craft will be found either in the safety-specific glossary at the end of Chapter 5 or the full glossary at the end of the book.

This book encompasses a broad range of basic unarmed stage combat techniques, but not every technique or variation devised. It comprises core techniques used to prepare a performer-in-training for their fight performance exam and a solid foundation of knowledge in preparation for the profession.

Stage combat is a constantly evolving craft, responsive to the growing demands of an everchanging industry and an increasingly perceptive audience. This means that practitioners are often creating variations on a theme, innovative ways to make a technique work for alternative staging, or creating something completely original. It would be impossible for a book to capture them all. I’ve constrained myself to the basic versions of techniques.

In Parts I and II you will find the role of the fight director mentioned many times. This might seem strange in a book on technique aimed at the student and the teacher. Although unarmed combat can be a standalone subject of study, it exists in the industry only as one of many tools in the performer’s integrated toolkit. So the end point of all of the enclosed information and discussion, inevitably, has to be its application by a fight director and a performer in the professional environment. Therefore, many of the points made will be drawn through to those conclusions. However, this is not a how-to manual for fight directing. The techniques described here are part of the craft of a working fight director, but only a small part. A good fight director’s knowledge base is considerably broader and deeper. Fight directing is a career that should never be entered into lightly. It demands a great deal of training, as the performers’ safety very much depends on the expertise of the fight director in a number of different areas.

This work is the accumulation of knowledge filtered through generations of performers and fight directors. Modern stage combat practitioners are as good as they are because they stand on the shoulders of giants, and much credit must go to our predecessors. A small number of the terms and principles in this book I have formulated myself, but others were codified by friends in the BASSC, and still others by our antecedents in the stage combat industry.

To provide as useful an experience as possible to the reader, video footage has been created and placed online at www.philipdorleans.com. Enter the password STARTSLOW for access to the videos. If access to the recordings is limited, all the information the reader needs is in the written description.

PLEASE REMEMBER!

Read Chapter 5 on safety before you try out any of the techniques.

PART I

FUNDAMENTAL PRINCIPLES

The Beggars’ Opera, courtesy of The Storyhouse Chester. MARK CARLINE

1

A BRIEF THEATRICAL CONTEXT

Arguably, drama is conflict. At its heart there is no drama without confrontation, whether of ideologies, philosophies, countries, characters, or needs and desires. Inevitably, some of that discord will manifest itself physically. The need to perform these moments of violence safely and repeatedly must have led, very early on, to the development of some form of staged violence.

Shakespeare’s Rose Theatre 2019, Blenheim Palace

ANCIENT EGYPT

The earliest form of ritualized performance seems to be that of the ancient Egyptian priests. Tales of the gods, with their battles and murders, particularly the killing of Osiris by Seth, almost certainly entailed some representation of actual fights. With the priesthood being at the centre of Egyptian culture, science and medicine (Lorenzi, 2003), attracting the brightest, most enquiring minds, it seems inconceivable that somebody did not turn their intelligence towards working out how to create a performed fight, although there are no records proving this.

EUROPE TO THE RENAISSANCE

The first flourishing of theatre in Europe, as we would recognize it, occurred amongst the civilizations around the Mediterranean. In the theatre of Ancient Greece, it seems that acts of physical brutality usually occurred off-stage. Most historians believe that this was done for reasons of religion and tradition, although the reality may have had more to do with practical considerations (Sommerstein, 2010).

The Odeon of Herodes Atticus, Athens.

The Colosseum, Rome.

There is little information on the traditions of early Roman theatre, but later popular taste was for broad spectacle, as evidenced by the prevalence of arena games and executions. There seems to be proof that some executions were staged as dramas within which the lead characters were brutally murdered (Bellinger, 1927). Given the propensity of Roman culture towards physical cruelty, it seems unlikely they would have followed the Greek fashion, but there is no clear information regarding their approach towards staged violence (Bradford, 2019).

Shakespeare’s Rose Theatre, Blenheim Palace. A temporary recreation of a sixteenth-century Bankside theatre.

Fight notes from a production of Macbeth at Shakespeare’s Globe. Prior to the advent of smartphones, this was one method for ensuring all safety notes were recorded.

Staged performances of written texts then disappear from the historical record in Europe for a millennium, until the passion and mystery plays of the Middle Ages. The next evolution of performed aggression probably occurred at this time, in scenes representing religious violence (Groves, 2007). It is not until the late Tudor age that the depiction of violence begins to bear some relation to current perceptions of aggressive reality, notably in the plays of Shakespeare. From this point until the current day, the number of fights written into plays would seem to indicate that they were, and continue to be, popular with audiences.

ACTORS AND THE SWORD

Although it is incomplete, there is documentary proof from the late Tudor era that shows that performers studied swordplay at the time, presumably partly with the intention of adapting its usage for the stage (Berry, 1991). At a time when the playing for prizes by fight masters and their acolytes was considered prime entertainment, and most members of the public would have intimate, visual knowledge of sword fighting, it seems unlikely that acting companies would have retained their audiences if their fights failed to replicate the real thing accurately. Today, the pressure of audience expectation can drive producers to ever greater heights, and there is no reason to believe that this was not the case in earlier times.

Well-known performer and clown Richard Tarlton was not only a member of the Queen’s Men, but also a fight master by accolade with the London Masters of Defence – a considerable achievement (Martinez, 1996). During this period, theatre began to adopt a form that would be more familiar to modern sensibilities, and began to flourish. One element of this success was certainly down to the spectacle achieved through a focus on violence and fights. In much the same way as an action movie excites with car chases and explosions, Elizabethan and Jacobean theatre achieved similar results with blood and blades.

The trend of performers training in swordsmanship continued through the 18th and 19th centuries. Domenico Angelo, who, infatuated with the actress Peg Woffington, accompanied her to London from Paris, established himself first as a master of equitation, then opened a school of arms in the city’s Soho area in 1763 (Aylward, 1953). While his salle d’armes was popular with the upper classes (he was fencing tutor to the Prince of Wales), it also drew actors, and continued to do so under the tenure of his son Harry. Controversially for the time, the school also accepted female students, many of whom were actresses (Aylward, 1953).

Angelo and his wife were close friends of the legendary actor David Garrick and, following the death of her husband, Garrick’s widow stayed with the Angelos for a while (Oman, 1958). Apparently, Angelo also designed sets for some of Garrick’s productions (Oman, 1958). Clearly, there were strong ties between the premiere fencing salle in the country and the London theatrical establishment. There is no record that Angelo ever took the role of fight arranger, but it is surely reasonable to suppose that, with those strong ties, he may have been actively involved in creating fights.

The auditorium of the Royal Opera House from the stage; note the height and width.

In the early 19th century, the diaries of actor-manager William Macready mention the lessons he undertook as a young performer at Angelo’s salle d’armes, studying with Henry Angelo, the second generation of the dynasty (Aylward, 1953). In the late 19th century Felix Bertrand, son of Baptiste Bertrand, founder of Salle Bertrand (and his own fencing dynasty), was another instructor who was actively involved arranging fights for London theatres (Cohen, 2002).

THE DEVELOPMENT OF THE ROLE OF FIGHT DIRECTOR

Fights continued to be an integral part of live entertainment through the 20th century. The development of the film industry saw their expansion into a different medium, one with greater reach and public impact. Filmmakers followed theatrical tradition, using fencing masters to train performers and choreograph fights (Thomas, 1973). The exposure movies brought led to an increased awareness of the role of the fight choreographer (Richards, 1977) and by incremental stages that role moved away from fencing coaches towards the development of professional fight directors. The wave of new writing in the mid-20th century, with its emphasis on domestic situations, helped create the need to combine in one role someone who was expert in unarmed, as well as sword, fights.

This impetus coalesced into the formation of the Society of British Fight Directors (SBFD) in 1968 and the development of the Equity Register of Fight Directors. The SBFD led directly to an American counterpart, the Society of American Fight Directors (SAFD) in 1977. Their work has led to a point in theatrical history at which it is almost universally accepted that fights should be choreographed by trained professionals, who can advocate for the performer’s safety, and who understand the complexities involved in telling violent stories.

THE TRAINING ARC

So how does a performer train to fight on stage? In the UK most train at drama school before entering the profession, with most schools recognizing the benefits of developing a fighting skillset during their training. Before graduating, almost every trained performer in the UK will have taken the Fight Performance Test, covering, at a minimum, unarmed combat and one sword style.

There are currently three primary organizations in Britain that train performers and certify combat teachers. Each organization’s examination procedures differ in detail, but are broadly the same in execution. Students perform one or more scenes, containing a fight, for an external examiner. The examiner observes their practical understanding of safety, their mastery of the weapon style, and their integration of character, text and fight into a seamless, fully motivated whole.

BASSC teacher Andrei Zayats: fight rehearsals are continually adjusted by the instructor, working towards the clearest story-telling.ROB DAVIDSON

Records show that group drills have been a staple tool of the fight instructor since the very early times of the formal training of fighters.ROB DAVIDSON

Moshinsky’s 2018 ROH production of Simon Boccanegra: a rare opportunity to bring very experienced performers together in a fight team that was capable of fighting aggressively, but safely, surrounded by an eighty-strong opera chorus.

The exam is the endpoint of the training process. Performers acquire a skillset, gaining an understanding of fundamental concepts and experience in their practical application. They then learn choreography, utilizing many of the techniques learned. Part of the focus is on understanding how they personally best learn choreography. This then shifts to the integration of choreography and scene and exploration of the rehearsal process. The final stage is managing the transition from rehearsal room to performance space, where learning to trust the solid foundation of technique, training and rehearsal will support their performance when they commit to the character’s experience.

Contrary to the process performers undergo in the rehearsal room, as described throughout this book, in any given fight exam, the students all use the same choreography and fit it to their chosen scene rather than the other way around. This gives students the opportunity to demonstrate to an examiner the breadth and depth of their knowledge and ability. Unlike the work of a fight director on a specific show, the training choreography is not completely rooted in the individual character impulse, but is more generalized. This is understood by all involved to be a compromise born out of the exam situation compounded with the inevitable time pressures inherent in any training programme. It is made clear to the students that, once the skillset has been gained, the process shifts to a much more character-specific method.

2

DO THESE TECHNIQUES ACTUALLY WORK?

How many times have you seen a theatrical unarmed fight and thought that it did not really work? But through politeness, or a belief that it is not actually possible to make a fight look real on stage, you say nothing. You praise your friend in the company, or the person who directed the production, but you do not mention the shortcomings of the representation of the violence. By saying nothing, you have become complicit in the pretence that a bad fight is acceptable, and not an embarrassment.

Treasure Island, courtesy of The New Vic Theatre, Stoke-on-Trent. ANDREW BILLINGTON

The reality is that theatrical fights are unsuccessful far more often than should be the case. There are many reasons for this: maybe the performers were less than physically able; or the director did not care how real the fight looked; or nobody bothered to check the sightlines; or the fight has migrated over a long run; or perhaps they are not running fight calls; or the production could not afford a fight director; or they chose a bad fight director. Or it might be that nobody believes it is possible to portray a realistic fight on stage, so they simply gloss over those moments in their list of expectations.

A fight crafted for an end-on stage, allowing a clear view of both faces at a climactic moment. Dial M for Murder, courtesy of Vienna’s English Theatre.REINHARD REIDINGER

Well, they are wrong, but they are also right. Wrong, in that it is perfectly possible to create exciting, realistic, dynamic fights, which have an audience on the edge of their seats, tell a great story in synch with the rest of the show, and allow performers to remain safe whilst freeing them to apply their acting skills to the violence. They are right in that many of the techniques taught to performers, and presented in this book, do not work in certain performance venues.

THE IMPORTANCE OF CONTEXT

Of course, the question then has to be, why teach these techniques? Why do fight directors use them? Why do we subject our performers and audiences to them if they don’t work? Why are they in this book? The answer, simply put, is that not all techniques are created equal. Not every technique works in every venue and there is no ‘one move fits all’ solution when it comes to choreographing a fight. The techniques all have their place, and will all work beautifully in the correct context, whether that is for a single point of view such as a camera, or in a studio theatre, in-the-round staging, or perhaps in a high house.

This victim had to look defeated, with a dominant attacker swinging them into position by their neck. The Kite Runner, West End and National Tour, courtesy of UK Productions/Flying Entertainment.BETTY ZAPATA

The problem comes when a fight director, or the director, makes choices that are inappropriate to the venue. Unfortunately, there are fight directors who will put a small theatre jab punch on to a large West End stage without thought to the sightlines for most of the audience. There are also directors who consistently allow such choices without questioning the reason why the moves literally do not work, and without insisting that the fight director find a better solution to the story-telling challenge. They may assume that the audience will not notice, or that, if they do, they will not care.

CAN IT BE DONE?

Creating a fight that works on every level of safety, physical logic, character logic and story-telling, which is also consistently replicable by the performer, and works for every sightline in the venue is not easy. This is a difficult job by any definition. The performance of a fight is also extremely complex. Being safe, accurate, fast, aggressive, and engaged in the character’s internal life, all whilst replicating choreography, is challenging for anyone. If a performer struggles physically, the fight will need to be tailored very much to their abilities.

Careful repetition of the choreography in rehearsal enables the development of flow and clarity of character choice. Dedication, courtesy of The Nuffield Theatres, Southampton.LUKE MACGREGOR

Despite all this, it is absolutely achievable. All the techniques in this book hold great validity as long as their limitations are acknowledged, and they are applied in a context working to their strengths. In Part III, each technique chapter begins with an examination of which staging format works best. It is important for a performer to learn not just how to do a technique, but also how the illusion works, when it does not work, and how to stretch it if possible. Performers are not simply puppets to be moved around by fight directors: they will produce better work if they understand the mechanism making a technique work and when best to apply that version, rather than simply just how to do a move. They must understand on a technical level what they are trying to hide from the audience, and what they are trying to reveal.

CONSTRAINTS AND CREATIVITY

I once worked with an award-winning designer, who reflected on an Italian production of Aida with which he had been involved. His budget had been effectively unlimited. He had been denied nothing. Every demand he made had been met, no matter how outrageous. Looking back, he was aware that it had been the worst design he had ever created, overshadowing the entire performance. He felt that his most successful work had been created on a limited budget, where the financial constraints required him to be far more creative.

Stage combat is not a dead art. It is not fixed in amber without any hope of change. It is a vivid, lively craft, ever responsive to the demands that a changing theatrical environment makes upon it. Often, it is the constraints placed on it by difficult staging, awkward costumes and sets, or less physically able performers, which encourage it to flourish. When a fight director cannot make the established techniques work, he or she may be pushed to conceive a new way forward. When a teacher has an injured student, a new variation may be created. Restrictions and boundaries fuel creativity.

IMPACTS AND INFLUENCES

The Changing Audience

One force driving the development of the craft is related to the demands of an increasingly sophisticated audience. There was a time when the only performed violence available was on stage, and audiences’ expectations were in line with their experience of other shows and the current norm for their cultural paradigm. Therefore, a sword fight in the 1930s would have been little different from a sword fight in the 1850s, particularly if the ‘Standard Combats’ were used. These were a pre-learned series of choreographed phrases, commonly in use throughout the Victorian and Edwardian eras, which could be strung together in any order to create a fight. They were familiar to most performers and it was not unknown, if the audience were enjoying the fight, for the star to extend it by the simple expedient of calling out phrase names to his partner (Wolf, 2009).

A restraint hold has to look as though it would work and fit the professionalism, or not, of the attackers. Gaslight, courtesy of The New Vic Theatre, Stoke-on-Trent.ANDREW BILLINGTON

Henry Marshall, Master at Arms at RADA from the early 1970s until 1993, left a series of writings to the Theatre Museum in London (now fully subsumed into the Theatre and Performance Department in the V&A museum). He describes visiting, in the 1970s, an elderly performer near the end of his life, who, in the prime of his career, had actively fought the Standard Combats. They were so well known to him that he was still able to recall some of their names, if not the actual moves.

The Film Industry

With the evolution of the film industry, followed by television, the palate of the theatre audience began to change. Outside the constraints of a stage, and with the ability to break fights into easily rehearsed sections that could then be filmed repeatedly until the appropriate effect was created, fights became more spectacular. And as tastes in screen work began to be refined, they also became more realistic and more vicious. Coupled with the camera’s ability to support astonishing illusions for woundings and deaths, this led to a sea change in violence on stage. Simply put, the audience began to expect more. Combined with a growing trend for realism in theatre, stage combat had to move forward, and new versions of old techniques were created, crafted to be better suited to the new realism.

This is an ongoing process. As tastes change and films become ever more technically sophisticated, audiences expect still more from their live performance experience. Younger directors with tastes directly influenced by growing up in a technological world have different expectations from the older generations, and therefore different demands. Fight directors work to incorporate these influences into their work, inspired to stretch the craft ever further.

Alternative Staging

The 20th century saw a shift from traditional proscenium arch staging to a wider range of staging choices, including traverse, thrust, in-the-round, site-specific and, more recently, immersive theatre. While these all create difficulties for a fight director, they also present opportunities. As soon as the audience’s physical relationship to the action alters, many of the illusions that have been relied on in the past to tell the story without hurting a performer are no longer effective. These alternative stagings have really pushed practitioners to expand techniques to accommodate the altered sightlines, and no doubt will continue to do so.

Whilst designed for comedic effect, the characters must still be fully invested in their desperate reality. Shakespeare in Love, courtesy of National Theatret Norway.ØYVIND EIDE

A safe illusion of a leg sweep into a controlled descent whilst managing a large prop. Robin Hood, courtesy of the Guildford Shakespeare Company.STEVE PORTER

Every technique in this book works – if it is performed in the correct staging context. The relevant information is listed at the beginning of each technique and is fundamental to understanding how to apply the related technical information effectively. If every member of the artistic team involved in the development of a fight moment understands the constraints involved, and how to maximize the effectiveness of each technique, no audience will ever have to sit through another embarrassing failure of a fight, pretending it was worth the price of the ticket.

3

ACT WHILE YOU FIGHT

THE CHALLENGES OF STAGE COMBAT

Is it easy to perform a fight on stage for a live audience? If you have ever had the experience, you will know that it is actually very difficult to do, both well and consistently. The performer is being asked to achieve a number of complex and demanding tasks, all while staying in character:

• They have to remember the choreography in its entirety, with very little room for error.

• They have to remember any text that may be interleaved into the fight.

• They have to remember and apply every relevant safety principle.

• They have to ensure they hide everything that needs to be masked and reveal anything that must be seen to support the story.

• They must stay in synch with their fight partner throughout, giving and receiving precise physical and verbal cues at the right moments.

• They must handle the small errors in distance and placement that inevitably creep into any fight, which could spoil the illusion if unchecked, without allowing the audience to see them fixing those moments.

• They have to remember, and accurately play, their musical score for the fight whilst protecting their vocal instrument.

• They have to stay balanced both physically and emotionally, whilst their character undergoes an exhausting confrontation.

On top of all this, while keeping each of these technical balls effortlessly in the air they must also act. Is it any wonder that it’s more common to see a fight performed with a generic wash of emotion than it is to see a fight focused through a clear lens of moment-by-moment character impulse and response? Keeping control of all these elements, and stitching them into a seamless whole to create a really good fight, is hard to do well.

The Ladykillers, courtesy of The New Vic Theatre, Stoke-on-Trent. ANDREW BILLINGTON

Just like juggling, when the juggler has to shift their attention to one specific ball, they are more likely to lose control of the others. In a stage combat scenario, the first ball to drop is usually the one marked ‘Acting’. This is usually because it is the last ball fitted into the sequence, but also because, when the brain makes a choice between focusing on concrete, physical technicalities or the most recently overlaid, nebulous, emotional story-telling, it almost always chooses the former.

As a result, an audience’s experience of a fight in a show is often that it feels tacked on to the narrative, rather than being rooted in – and justified by – character and text. It often feels like performers fighting, rather than the characters that the audience have been getting to know. The story-telling beats may feel crude compared to the rest of the performance, or there may be a lack of variety in pace, intention and reaction. This is usually because it is just plain difficult to perform a fight convincingly. Sometimes, due to a lack of rehearsal, inexperience, a poor fight director, or even fear, performers fall back to a slower, apparently safer, less engaged version of the fight, rather than stretching themselves to achieve the best they can.

STARTING WITH CHARACTER

How can a performer avoid this situation? They have little control over rehearsal time, or the partner they end up with, but they do control when and how they introduce the character beats into their fight. It is tempting to think of ‘acting’ as the last element to be added – something that is laid on top of all the other technical work. I used to work with the analogy that the technical skillset is the skeleton, the choreography is the flesh, and the character choices made are the costume that clothes the technical body. However, I have recently come to the conclusion that this was back to front. In fact, the skeleton must be the character work, the flesh the technical skillset – as acquired by the character – and the choreography the clothing, as chosen by the character. Acting, or the character, must infuse and be at the very heart of the fight, for, without that, the fight is simply a demonstration of technique.

The anticipation of pain can be a terrible fear for some characters if they have never been hit before. Wait Until Dark, courtesy of Vienna’s English Theatre.REINHARD REIDINGER

THE FIGHT DIRECTOR’S INPUT

A good fight director develops a fight impulse by impulse with the input of the performers and the director. If all involved are strongly focused on the character intentions and objectives, the fight will be created with a strong internal structure of actable beats, already informed by character. This means that, as the performer’s motor learning absorbs the technical moves in rehearsal, their performer memory takes in and fleshes out the character’s moment-by-moment story, linking meaning and choice to each move as they work.

What should the performer do if their fight director does not choose to work in this way, using their input, and the fight becomes a generic ‘plug-and-play’? At this point the performer should remember exactly what they know and can still bring to the fight – how to act and tell a story – and then apply everything they know of their craft to the choreography, exactly as they would if they were given a less than inspiring text.

Not every character is emotionally prepared for violence and the shock continues to reverberate through them. Gabriel, courtesy of Theatre 6.ROBIN SAVAGE

This is the real secret: a fight is simply a dialogue. It is an argument between two or more people, enacted physically rather than verbally. A fight happens when words are no longer enough to express how the people feel, but it is not the end of the conversation. It is a continuation. A performer should treat the choreography in exactly the same manner in which they treated the text leading up to the fight.

CHOREOGRAPHIC ANALYSIS

The performer needs to sit down and do the same homework for a fight as they do for their lines, in exactly the same way. They might choose to use the following specific processes for analysing text:

• Work out the units.

• Clarify the beats in each unit.

• Action each line, perhaps even each word in certain lines.

• Define the super-objective and map out the linked objectives.

• Understand the through-line; how does each moment link to the next?

• Seek the variety, colour, light and shade, the subtlety and nuance within the text.

• Pull into focus the relationship between the characters.

• Analyse the obstacles and the tactics used to avoid them.

• Calculate the stakes for the character.

• Specify the given circumstances.

How does this type of analysis apply to a physical fight performance?

Units

In the phrasing of the choreography, each discrete phrase of the fight is seen as a unit. Rather than burning through from beginning to end, most performed fights break down into separate sections, with pauses for text, or non-fight action between them. Each section is a phrase of choreography. ‘Phrase’ is a fight director’s term, while a performer might use the term ‘unit’ for the same concept.

Beats

Each beat sustains for as long as one character drives the fight, which may be for just one move, or for as many as six moves. The next beat begins as soon as another character takes control and fights back. So a phrase, or unit, will be comprised of at least one beat, but will usually contain more.

Fight story notes broken down beat by beat, written up for the performers and artistic team. I’ll Be the Devil, Royal Shakespeare Company.

Action

In using action verbs to define what the character is trying to achieve in each moment of the interaction, the more specific the choice of verb, the more defined the playable intention will be and the more depth there will be to the performance. Each move in a fight must be played with a precise, rather than generic, intention. For example, not ‘I’m going to punch you in the face’, but rather ‘I’m going to shatter your jaw’.

Super-Objective

The performer will have worked out the character’s super-objective in relation to the engine driving them through the play. The fight must logically feed into, and support, that super-objective, not play against it. The fight will have its own super-objective; entering the fight, the performers need to know exactly what the character hopes to achieve.

Objectives

These usually change with each new phrase of fight, as a result of the pauses between phrases enabling assessment and renewal, or adjustment, of the character’s immediate need. That is not to say that objectives cannot alter mid-phrase. A character might, for example, decide to abandon attempting to scalp the enemy, shifting focus to just escaping with a whole skin.

It is not uncommon in a fight for a character to pause and reassess the situation. Merry Wives of Windsor, courtesy of The Storyhouse, Chester.MARK CARLINE

Through-Line

Each moment of the fight must be linked to the one before and the one after. What has just happened to them in the previous moment must shape and inform the character’s immediate next choice. The logic of that choice applies on different levels and in different ways, and depends, to some extent, on how good the fight director is:

• Physical logic: what position is the body in and what is the next, logical choice of move? What position is the partner’s body in and how does that affect the logic of that choice?

• Energy logic: has energy just been expended and needs to be renewed, or has energy just been chambered by the latest shift in position, ready for release?

• Emotional logic: where is the character emotionally? Does it make more sense for the next move to be offensive or defensive?

• Character logic: What is the character’s backstory? Is it logical for them to throw a spinning back kick, or are they more likely to flail a foot and fall over?

If the performer gets this right, the linked character impulses generate physical and emotional energy that fuels and drives the fight, without the performer needing to artificially generate that energy.

Variety

A real fight is filled with infinite variety. Even if a move is immediately repeated, the intention and energy behind it will be different. Every single move is delivered with varying levels of energy and intent. Each moment feeds off, but is different from, the one that precedes it. Different choices lead to differing levels of energy, to differing rhythms and pace, to shaded nuances of intent. A fight should be an ever-changing, richly textured tapestry of violence.

Relationship

The relationship between the fighters must be very clear as it will have an impact on the style of the fight and the choices that the characters make. Siblings will fight in a different way from a child and parent. A fight between two work colleagues will be different from one between two friends. The nature of the relationship colours and informs all the choices and responses that fighters make to the moments, and to each other.

Obstacles/Tactics

A fight is the physical expression of the adoption and alteration of tactics to get around an obstacle. The enemy is in the character’s way and trying to stop them: they attempt something that works, partially works, or does not work. The next choice is an adaptation of their tactics, depending on which outcome it was.

Stakes

Why is the character fighting? What do they stand to lose? What could they gain? The higher the stakes, the more compelling the fight is for the audience, and the broader and deeper the range of choices open to the performer. The stakes should always be pushed as far as possible.

Each character fights as their body allows. Carrie’s War, Apollo Theatre, courtesy of Novel Theatre and Mark Bentley.KEITH PATTISON

Given Circumstances

The who, why, what, where, when, and how, of the fight.

• Who are they? Who are they fighting?

• Why are they fighting?

• What are they fighting with? What are they fighting for? What is their fighting style?

• Where are they fighting?

• When are they fighting – time, day, month, season, year? When does the fight happen in the arc of the story?

• How did they come to this point? How do they fight? How well trained are they?

Audience Perspective

What makes a good fight from the perspective of the audience? When asked, most people answer with a range of the following points:

• The characters look as if they are vulnerable and in danger.

• The fight is explosive and surprising, for characters and audience.

• The fight is aggressive.

• The attacks are fast and believable, and the reactions match.

• The pain seems real, is sustained, and continues to affect the characters.

• The stakes are high.

• The fight rhythms change throughout, avoiding repetition.

• The choices fit what is known of the characters and their circumstances.

• Each moment seems to be an organic, logical development from the previous moment.

• The characters are seen making choices affected by what has just happened to them.

• The characters are seen to be affected by the violence, assessing what is happening and trying different tactics based on that judgment.

If these elements are considered, there is a good chance that the audience will be invited into the character’s reality.

The witty tone of this production dictated this comedic version of stretching on the rack. Shakespeare in Love, courtesy of National Theatret Norway.ØYVIND EIDE