Today we worked on fight choreography once again, this time
focussing on the final battle at the end of the play. The big climactic fight
breaks down into several stages: the first charge, the White Witch’s dominance,
a duel between Edmund and the Witch, a duel between Peter and the Witch, Aslan’s
arrival and the victory for the Narnians.
We started with a quick tutorial in stage-combat, covering
the basic footwork, and the standard cuts and parries. Then we worked through
the first charge of the final battle, where there is plenty of steel clashing
against steel. Peter and Edmund find their confidence on the battlefield during
separate duels with the White Witch’s minions. Neither Peter nor Edmund have ever
fought in a battle before, but here they find their courage and inner strength
to lead the Narnian people – fulfilling their destined roles.
The scene then jumps to another area of the battlefield,
where the White Witch shows off her power, by turning a couple of Narnian
warriors into stone with ease. She does so almost nonchalantly, which is a very
effective demonstration of her supremacy. She then yells out a command to her
minions. In the next section the Witch is about to claim another victim, when
Edmund arrives and intercepts. She decides not to kill him outright, but
instead have some sport. She mocks him for his earlier failings, taunts him,
and easily defends his attacks. However, she underestimates him and pays dearly
for it, as Edmund knocks her wand from her hand and smashes it. Outraged the
Witch stabs him, mortally wounding him. She takes Edmund’s sword from him and
prepares to deal a finishing blow.
It is at this point that Peter arrives, and drives the Witch
away from his brother. At this point the White Witch is armed with two swords,
whist Peter fights with a sword and shield (which he received from Father
Christmas). Fighting with a shield is something that I’ve never done before, so
it takes some getting used to. Coupled with the unusual dynamic (two
swords/sword and shield) and we have a slightly complicated fight sequence on
our hands. Nevertheless we ended up with a very dramatic duel, which builds up
the sense of risk very effectively – the Witch is much more powerful than Peter
and ultimately gains the upper hand. We didn’t get around to choreographing
Aslan’s arrival, and timely intervention – but we now have the rest of the
final battle worked out.
Whilst the fights were being worked out, other scenes were
rehearsed with the rest of the cast to make effective use of the time. The
scene when Susan and Lucy wake in the night and discover Aslan walking alone
was worked out, along with the scenes which follow Aslan’s execution, and their
arrival at the White Witch’s house, where Aslan revives all of the stone
statues. I didn’t see most of this, but I happened to catch a run through of
the first of these scenes and felt that it was very effective and poignant. The
absence of the usual laughter and corpsing added a very genuine feeling to the
scene, and that sincerity will hopefully run through the final performance. There
are a lot of very effective scenes throughout the show, and once we perform
them with complete sincerity we should have something very special on our
hands.
Quote of the day: (“I’m only ten years old”) “Yes, but you
are destiny’s child” Tom Chadwick (Providing
the best kind of fight direction)
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