A hit a very palpable hit.
So says Osric in the early stages of the climactic duel between Laertes and the Danish prince in Shakespeare’s Hamlet. The swordfight starts as a mutually agreed-upon competition later turning into a desperate life-and-death battle. The culmination of one of the world’s most famous English-language plays this lengthy fight is shaped by hints injected into the script. Add a tight space and a ramp and that’s the fight Karl Sine directed for The Shakespeare Company’s production of Hamlet in 2012.
“Every job I’ve ever done as a fight director has its unique challenge but that’s part of why I love it. There’s always a problem to solve” says Sine. An actor director and Academy of Fight Directors Canada-certified fight instructor Sine has also staged combat for other recent Shakespearean productions such as Titus Andronicus William Shakespeare’s Land of the Dead and Shakespeare by the Bow’s The Comedy of Errors. And although Sine is trained in weapons like rapier broad sword quarter-staff and cutlass you’ll also see his martial choreography in modern plays like Alberta Theatre Projects’ production of The Motherf**cker with the Hat which was nominated for a Betty Mitchell Award.
As fun as foils and fisticuffs may be stage combat should always serve the greater story. “The fight director’s there to support the story and to support those actors in helping create something that they can do night after night that is exciting for the audience” says Sine. “We find a way to work together to create this illusion of violence that hopefully has a visceral and exciting experience and story [for] the audience and that supports what’s going on.”
Alberta Theatre Projects’ artistic director Vanessa Porteous emphasizes that stage combat must always have a clear reason to exist and advance the story emotionally in some way. “Good stage combat choreographers are working on characters and power and story points and what the situation is — those are the things that are directing their decisions about who punches and who thrusts and who grabs” she says. She also points out that in contemporary plays not only are the swords and bucklers missing but the characters themselves often aren’t trained fighters. “In contemporary plays it’s not as though it’s always two boxers fighting each other in hand-to-hand combat. It’s different characters from different walks of life with different experiences of physical violence so there’s maybe a little more complexity to the characterization of the fight.”
Regardless of the play though Sine says the No. 1 reason to have a fight director is for safety. (Stage swords though not sharpened can still take out an eye.) He explains that the first thing he does when embarking on a new scene is assess the actors involved and understand what they’re capable of. “Just because I can do it doesn’t mean the actor can do it and my job is to make them look good.”
While no actors are harmed in stage combat good fight direction must still depict believable physical violence in real time with no privileged camera angles or second takes. “As much as we’re creating and teaching technique fight directors are often a little bit like magicians as well” says Sine. “We need to get the audience to look somewhere else while something else is happening or we need to use a bit of sleight of hand to create the illusion of a technique so that the audience can believe it.”
And getting caught up in the action even though audiences know that the actors are safe is part of the fun of watching a good stage fight. “The audience is here at the theatre for pleasure and delight even at the grimmest play” says Porteous. “There’s a reason everyone loves violent TV shows and movies — there’s a pleasure in watching good fighting which we are hypocritical if we deny.”