The Green Goblin Blog

The theatre tent was a well organised affair - several rows of straw bails for the punters, a stage in the middle and a large backstage area to the rear. Samantha and I sat down towards the end of the local Prankster's Theatre Company's rendition of Shakespeare's "The Merry Wives of Windsor" (a shortened version thereof) so we could wait for the much more interesting-sounding "Stage Combat Demo and Workshop" from True Edge.

The first half was a series some set pieces to show of their skills followed by a second half of improvisation based on audience input. Their acting abilities were varied - Captain Jack Sparrow wasn't too bad; Romeo and Juliet were passable - but then we weren't there to see that. The swordfights were quite fast although they didn't have the advantage of camera angles to add more excitement. Reminds me of the Dr Who Confidential TV programme where you see the-making-of which never looks anywhere near as scary as the finished product.

More enjoyable was the improvised work where two stunt fighters (the middle pair in the photo below) would take on a string of suggestions from the audience and play them out as one continuous fight. I was surprised how vicious the very young people sitting so sweetly amongst us could be!

Labels: GuilFest

# posted by John Breakwell @ 7:00 PM