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Staging Shakespeare's Violence: My Cue to Fight (Hardback)

Domestic Fury

Colour Books P&S History > British History > Tudors & Stuarts P&S History > By Century > 16th Century P&S History > By Century > 17th Century Photographic Books

By Seth Duerr, Jared Kirby
Imprint: Pen & Sword History
Pages: 328
Illustrations: 50 colour illustrations
ISBN: 9781526762405
Published: 20th September 2021

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My Cue to Fight is the first book of its kind to provide an in-depth examination of how the greatest playwright in the English language employed not only psychological brutality but also physical violence throughout his works. Written ideally for theatrical stage directors, fight directors, intimacy consultants, and actors as a technical scene-by-scene breakdown in staging combat during production of these plays, this publication is also for Shakespeare enthusiasts who want to learn more about the blood, sweat, and viscera hidden just underneath the poetry.

A writer utilises violence, like song or dance, in moments where the story requires more than just words. But addressing how the violence will be staged tends either to be neglected or utterly gratuitous, both of which serve to separate the audience from the story and kill the whole venture. The answer rests in approaching violence the same way we do scenework. The plays of William Shakespeare seek to engage audiences with all of the characters’ blood, tears, sweat, and guts. These works are not flowery poems meant to be mumbled in a classroom, or histrionically declaimed in frilly costumes. There is nothing light and fluffy about 'rape' and 'murder’s rages', or 'carving' someone as a dish fit for the gods, or fighting till from one’s bones one’s 'flesh be hacked'. Making matters more complicated is the ambiguity and sometimes even complete lack of stage directions. Modern texts typically possess clear directions whenever violence is to occur in the action, but playscripts were quite different four centuries ago. Such denotations were both rare and inconsistent in Elizabethan and Jacobean printings. The potential violence we will examine is not appropriate for all productions or scene partners. We’re here to question and inspire rather than provide catch-all solutions. Actors, directors, fight directors, and intimacy consultants must work together to find the most effective way for their production to communicate the playwright’s story to the audience.

'fight directors will find this an effective and efficient tool; that any actor’s or producer’s library will benefit from this extremely useful volume'

Philip d'Orleans

Rating: 5 out of 5 stars

This was a really interesting read, I enjoyed getting to read this very much, it was a interesting take and I appreciated how much effort the authors did.

NetGalley, Kay McLeer

About Seth Duerr

Seth Duerr is the Founder and Artistic Director of The York Shakespeare Company and has appeared in and/or directed 34 productions of Shakespeare. He is a proud member of Actors’ Equity Association, SAG-AFTRA, the Society of Stage Directors and Choreographers, and serves on the Advisory Board of Wingspan Arts. 


About Jared Kirby

Jared Kirby has been involved in Western Martial Arts and Combat for Stage & Screen for 25 years. He teaches in New York City and is a Master of Arms (Maestro d’Armi) through the Martinez Academy of Arms. He is the president of CombatCon in Las Vegas and teaches workshops around the world. As a fight director, Jared has choreographed stars such as Peter Sarsgaard, Steve Guttenberg and Cameron Douglas and choreographed fights Off-Broadway, nationally, and internationally in London and Sydney.
In addition to this book, Jared is the editor of A Gentleman’s Guide to Duelling by Vincentio Saviolo and The School of Fencing by Domenico Angelo and annotated by Maestro Jeannette Acosta-Martínez, and is the co-author of Staging Shakespeare's Violence, Vol. 1.

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