Published in 2001, Sword Fighting: A Manual for Actors and Directors is one of the best-selling books on stage combat. With choreographed sequences from several different sword styles, it gives the actor a direct way to jump in to sword fighting. However, it has some critical problems that make it tough to recommend.

The pair of authors make a good team as one seems more practical, and the other more theory-driven. Keith Ducklin is primarily an actor and teacher in the British Academy of Dramatic Combat. John Waller is a Fight Director with credits on Doctor Who and Monty Python and the Holy Grail.

Goals and Methods

I was happy to find that the first section on Philosophy was called “Reality First”. The authors emphasized that plays and films that include sword fighting in historical context should include choreography inspired by the real techniques we know from historical documents.

Instead of being a history lesson, however, the needs of the performer and the story are always at the forefront. The terminology does not include foreign language terms, and the actor’s safety is always considered. Most of the movements are explained in the context of the character’s intention and how the actor behaves for the movement to be safe.

There are only a few general notes at the start of the book before getting into the main content. A chapter on motivation and a chapter on body mechanics discussing eye contact and keeping one’s balance are important to any book on physical acting skills, and they don’t overcomplicate these things. I might have expected something more on safety methods, but they explain that with each movement in the main body.

Cook Book

The main content of the book is a series of five choreographed fights. Each movement is illustrated with black and white drawings that clearly show both actors’ body shapes and the position of the weapons. Each illustration is captioned with detailed explanations of the motion and the safety precautions for each move.

Some call this type of teaching a “cook book” because instead of teaching the principles in advance, they expect the reader to perform the actions in the sequence they provide. In this way, the student not only learns the fight, but must incorporate the safety features as they exist in a realistic setting. The same is true of a cook book, which is mainly a book of recipes with detailed instructions. Instead of teaching the chef principles of taste and nutrition and use of the oven, they learn it while following a recipe and eating the delicious result if they’ve done it properly.

The advantage of the cook book is that the student learns by doing, rather than being told. They will embody their new skill rather than simply understand it.

The problem with a cook book is that it is difficult to use as a reference. Instead of looking up a lesson about a specific ingredient, one has to comb through each recipe to see where and how the ingredient is used.

The fights themselves use a variety of techniques and follow dynamic motions that are authentic to each weapon. If you need a ready-made short fight, each can be lifted directly from the book. The five sequences are:

Late medieval two-handed sword (9 moves)
Late medieval hand-and-a-half sword (9 moves)
Sixteenth century single-handed sword and buckler (10 moves)
Sixteenth and seventeenth century rapier and dagger (22 moves)
Late seventeenth century transition rapier and eighteenth century smallsword (44 moves)

Reality First?

In the remarks before each weapon’s choreography, they make vague reference to authentic fight books, which they only mention by name in the appendix: Talhoffer, Fiore, Marozzo, Fabris, de Liancour and Angelo. By their own admission, very few of the works were available in print at that time. Our approach at Academie Duello is to learn the fundamentals of stage combat and then apply those principles to the historical sources we have at our disposal today.

The choreography they offer gives us some of the genuine motions, but many of the sequences are blatantly repetitive, so that both actors get an opportunity to try each technique. Because of this artifice, many of the fights fail both the realism standard and the dramatic standard.

Do sword fights frequently end -- especially in the theatrical context -- with a kick or a punch? Ducklin and Waller end their fights that way. My directors most often want the line “I am slain” to be justified with a killing thrust or cut. Perhaps the authors are only starting us off with a short phrase, giving the student the freedom to extend the fight and figure out an ending. They only give us one short paragraph about killing or wounding, and do not mention how to make them safe or effective, only advising that acting skill is important.

Terminology

Ducklin and Waller keep their use of specialized terminology to a minimum, which is great for the beginner.

Unfortunately for the Fight Directors Canada student, their use of “bind”, “glide” and “envelopment” will be confusingly different from the definition in the FDC glossary.

Apart from these terms, there is precious little specialized language. They do not use parry numbers or named guards, which means that the performer must have a visual reference to perform their choreography: if you look like the drawing, you’re doing it right. Since the moves are not numbered, finding your place in a sea of “parry blade up” can be frustrating.

Choreograhic Notation

Their notation, which they devote a short chapter at the end of the book, follows a script format that will be familiar to actors. The character name is in all-caps, followed by their action. I call this type of writing “Narrative description”, and it works for most purposes, but is not the standard in FDC. For more on recording choreography, refer to my previous post on this subject: Recording Choreography

The Verdict

I would recommend this book for those who have access to the appropriate weapons (as we do at Academie Duello), and the willingness to follow the step-by-step instructions with book in hand. I would not keep it as a reference, since a cook book is only as useful as its recipes, and I wouldn’t reuse these recipes except as a teaching tool.

Despite my reservations about their approach, I think each of the sequences give the student a good foundation for understanding how each weapon is used differently, and forms a good introduction to various stage fighting techniques in their application to a choreographed fight. Many books on stage combat provide no choreography at all.

The illustrations are unfailingly clear, except where one is expected to tell the difference between the Master and the Scholar by their hair colour.

If you want to evaluate it for yourself, there is a copy in the Vancouver Public Library, and it can be ordered from many booksellers.

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.