Pirates set to sail with realistic fight scenes: Students learn fine points of swashbuckling
by Tavis Newman

Imagine a group of wimpy, British constables attacking a band of brawny, lecherous pirates to defend the honour of their major-general’s beautiful daughters. Swords are drawn and police clubs fly.

This is the climactic scene that Mount Royal drama students have to tackle in the Theatre Department’s upcoming production of The Pirates of Penzance, directed by acting instructor Jean-Pierre Fournier.

“[The actors] have to look like they want to hurt somebody or not want to be hurt,” Fournier said in an interview about the fight scene. “If they don’t do that, we’re lost.”

In the scene, students playing roles of pirates, police and maidens battle simultaneously for 55 seconds. Fournier said it’s challenging to coordinate the fight scene because it’s such a large group.

“Usually a big fight on a stage that size is about eight or 10 people,” he said. “That’s a huge fight. This has got 28.”
Fournier said the hardest thing for students to learn is to control their speed during the fight scene.

“Their tendency is that once they think they know the move, then they speed up and go too fast, and they lose control. That’s when accidents happen.”

Although no one has yet been hurt at rehearsals, the potential is definitely there. The weapons being fought with – swords, knives and clubs – are all real. However, the swords and knives have been dulled for theatrical purposes.

Fournier, who is a trained fight director, spent about four hours choreographing the scene with the students. The actors don’t actually learn to fight or fence, but rather learn how to make the scene appear realistic.

“We don’t necessarily teach them fencing,” Fournier said. “We just teach them how to handle the weapons and make them good as actors on the stage.”

Fournier, who has studied fight direction in both Canada and England, has much experience teaching actors. He has worked across Canada as well as internationally.

His most memorable and challenging experience was working with a Japanese film, Heaven and Earth, filmed in Calgary in 1989.

“We had 3,500 people all fighting at the same time,” he recalled. “We taught 400 people a day how to fight Japanese-style fighting.”

In comparison to his work with the Japanese production, the Mount Royal play seems simple for Fournier.

“It’s time consuming and takes energy, but it’s not a major challenge. With this bunch [of students], you don’t have to do a lot because they’re so keen. They’re a really good bunch.”

Calgarians will be able to judge the students’ abilities for themselves when The Pirates of Penzance sets sail Nov. 26. Tickets for the play are available by phoning the Theatre Department at 240-6139.