Now that I’ve got your attention… sorry;
I hate the words ‘stage combat’! There
I said it out loud! To be clear: I don’t hate stage combat. I have just come to
dislike the assembly of these two words together used in a common theatrical
language to express an art form I believe is so much deeper. Why the dislike I
hear you ask?
I believe there is lack of depth that the words ‘stage
combat’ offers to truly grasp what is going. By ‘going on’: I mean in terms of
the actor's learning and the way in which it is viewed. When conducting a stage combat
class, the first thing I will ask the participants is: What are they here to learn? I do this before I use the words stage
combat. This question usually elicits responses like: fake fighting and pretend
punching. It’s these types of responses that undo the work that has been going
on for the last 20 years to develop the art that are hard to stomach. That said
– I get it. It’s not real! So, it’s fake and pretend.(watch this spot for a further blog on this)
Some of our practitioners have tried to rebrand it over the
years. Staged Combat, Theatrical Fighting, Theatrical Aggression and Acted
Aggression just to name a few. But for me none of them really get to the heart
of what the art form truly encompasses. To the lay person these two words also negate
other areas in our field like; physical comedy, domestic violence, sexual attacks
and even some broader uses of what we bring to the table as practitioners in
terms of movement.
All that said I don’t know what the answer is and given how
much traction the words have gained over the last 50 years I guess we are
destined to live with them now. But it highlights that we as practitioners have
a duty of care. We have become guardians for the continued education of the broader
context for these two words and the responsibility for their greater
understanding.
