Panic! Something went horribly wrong in your stage fight.
First off, assess the situation. "Horribly" is a matter of perspective: serious injuries can happen, which is truly the worst-case scenario. Problems with a fight scene might derail a performance, which can seem catastrophic, but should be handled calmly. Let's take a look at broken swords and other performance catastrophes, and how to recover from them. We will also discuss ways to prevent these mishaps or at least minimize their chances of occurring.
Injuries
We'll start with the most serious case: someone has been badly hurt. Stop the show, and get first aid to the person immediately. Dropping the curtain or otherwise protecting the audience's sensitive emotions comes second to helping someone who is bleeding or has broken bones.
Perhaps the worst feeling you can experience is hurting your fellow actor when there is no equipment failure. Regardless of their performance or error, you were clearly doing something incorrect (wrong target, too close, too much momentum, etc.) in order to strike your partner and injure them.
Your bad feelings aren't the only possible result; there can also be legal action for any workplace injury:
Hamlet actor settles ‘sword fight’ action
Mr Madden was playing Hamlet in the production and was duelling on stage when he was accidentally struck in the face with a round-tip sword.
Good training can help you to avoid most injuries because every motion in stage combat is choreographed with safety in mind. Most injuries happen when there is insufficient training or inferior equipment.
Sometimes injuries can result from a mistake or misjudgement (more on that later), but some of the most dangerous situations occur when a weapon swinging at full speed is broken...
Equipment Failure
A nice way of saying "you broke a sword" is to blame the weapon by calling it "equipment failure." Weapons of all constructions and materials can break, but I prefer to use carbon-steel blades for their sound and their durability. They are not brittle, so they will bend before breaking; but they are not so pliable that they warp, wobble, or get too eaten up on the edges.
I don't know what kind of material these guys were using, but I'm hoping it was wood:
Rajbir and Pooja break swords on set
A source says, “Rajbir and Pooja love practicing sword fighting and that has helped them improve their on screen chemistry. However they have broken 18 swords already and when we finally to take a scene, we are not left with anything. It has become quite a joke on the sets"
One common location for a sword to snap is at the shoulder. The shoulder (seen in the image) is the area where the blade meets the tang. The tang is the part of the blade that runs inside the grip to the pommel. The guard normally fits between the handle and the blade at the shoulder.
The sword is a lever, and the shoulder takes the most pressure when a lot of force is generated by the hand wielding it at one end, and the tip hitting a hard object at the other end.
Another problem is that the pommel that holds the sword together can suddenly fall off, leaving the sword fighter with only a handle in their hand. The pommel is a counterweight, and is usually heavy, so it's sometimes funny to see the pommel fall with a thud, followed by the tip of the blade falling because it suddenly feels top-heavy, then the tang slides from the grip, clanging on the floor one second later. Unfortunately, this often happens (as with the shoulder-break) when the sword is parried heavily, and the sword falls apart during the next swing, throwing the blade with some force across the room. It's scary and very hazardous.
The pommel may screw on to the tang, and might simply have come loose. Checking that your pommel is finger-tight before a fight should be part of your preparation. Do not over -tighten your pommel, as that will strip the threads of the tang, making it more likely that it will fall off!
In both of these types of breaks, the swords may be old and may have been abused for years, weakening the material until it snaps. However, the most common direct cause is hitting the blades together with too much force. Keeping a light touch, even with heavy weapons, shows that your character has skill and will make the fight even faster. There is no need to smash swords together, and in stage combat training, you'll get feedback on the amount of force that is appropriate.
If a weapon breaks mid-fight and there are no injuries, you should have a spare that you can get from a stage-hand. But every situation is different and thinking fast (and staying in character) will save the show. If this happens to you, consider the following:
- Are there other similar weapons on stage from a battle scene?
- Can you skip to the end of the fight and be killed? (Only do this if there was already a choreographed kill that your partner has practiced.)
- If both fighters can get off-stage, can you quickly discuss a solution?
NEVER CONTINUE A FIGHT WITH A BROKEN SWORD.
Lost Your Mind
Perhaps the most common disaster in a fight is the least dangerous one: you or your partner forget your choreography.
Rehearsal is the only prophylactic against memory issues. If you make only one or two hesitations in rehearsal, you may think that you're ready for performance, but you're still a long way off. Your rehearsals should be flawless when you're in a no-stress environment, and that takes many hours of practice.
If you're worried about your memory, or that of your partner, then make sure every phrase of choreography starts in a unique stance or set-up. That way, if there's an unrecoverable mistake in the middle of a phrase, you can decide to go back to the start of that section or skip ahead to the next one, and your partner will recognize your choice because of the way you stand or the location you go to on stage.
Practice Makes Perfect
Becoming familiar with the safe handling of swords and having the experience of rehearsing stage choreography with different weapons will prevent many of these catastrophes, and allow you to recover when they occur. If you want to learn to do this like the professionals do, get the Fight Directors Canada Basic Certification in our two-week intensive coming up this January, from the 19th to 30th!
Head of Stage Combat at Academie Duello and certified Instructor with Fight Directors Canada. Head of Bartitsu at Academie Duello, the longest continuously running Bartitsu program in the world. Read more from David McCormick.