#fight choreography
Ian McKellen as King Lear, Chichester, 2017
I saw this! I saw this! McKellen was great (of course) - from the first scene you could see he was the edge of losing his shit. At times doddery and vulnerable but then there would be moments of utter poise and strength, before switching to terrifying and vicious.
Cordelia was Tamara Lawrance (who recently played an excellent Viola in the National’s Twelfth Night) and she was brilliantly natural but forceful and a believeable leader of the French army.
The elder sisters were wooooonderful, too - as different as an apple to a crab - but equally capable of holding the stage. An unusually sympathetic Goneril, and a giggly and slightly intoxicated Regan.
Gloucester was just lovely (I spent ages trying to work out where I knew him from until I yelled out ALIEN 3 as we were getting drinks in the interval), and the post-blinding scenes were heartwrenching.
Edmund was devilishly charming, while Edmund was suitably earnest, and gradually fell to pieces seeing his dad so abused.
Set design was FABULOUSLY simplistic, based around a circular stage (the great thing about the Minerva is you have a great view wherever you sit) with REAL RAIN for the storm scene, and a gigantic portrait of Lear to open the play (see pic above).
But the best thing about it? Seriously. The fight choreography. It was orchestrated by Kate Waters and fuck me it was good. Like - they’re actually going to kill each other during the final duel kind of good. Edgar fought with a staff and he was full on slamming that thing down just inches from Edmund’s head. And the various stabbings and scuffles didn’t have that ‘stage fighty’ vibe to them - they were scrappy and up close and visceral. Literally the first thing we said to each other as we left the theatre was ‘oh my god the fight choreography’ - I mean, how often does that happen?
Chichester is good for Lear. I saw Frank Langella there a few years ago and it was similarly stunning. Highly recommend if you can make it.
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We recently met up with our stunt coordinator, Noel Vega (The Deadliest Warrior, Call of Duty) and are very excited to get into rehearsals and choreography with him.
Speaking of which, in case you missed it during our campaign, check out this behind-the-scenes vignette of lead actress Julia Morizawa training at the National Wushu Training Center with Coach Matthew Osborne, and sharing about her past experiences as a competitive gymnasts and stunt-doubling for Lucy Liu.
Watch our lead actress, Julia Morizawa, discuss training and getting into shape for the role of Red; as well as her experiences training at the National Wushu Training Center, as Lucy Liu’s gymnast stunt double in “Charlie’s Angels 2,” and growing up as a competitive gymnast.
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Since we’re all talking about the reasons why we’re going to miss AoS, can we take a moment to appreciate how INCREDIBLE the action sequences on this show have been? The fight choreography, the stunt work? Some of the best on television, full stop.
I’m enjoying my first real taste of being a stunt person (or maybe even an action hero—I’ve got lines and everything!) working with the amazing folks of Potoo. I’ve always loved the way fight choreography uses physicality as a narrative tool, and I’m incredibly excited to combine two things I love, martial arts and storytelling, on such a professional project.
You can see more behind the scenes shots at Potoo’s Facebook page, and I’ll keep more news coming as soon as I can.
Hopefully this project is the first of many!
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If you know me, you know I’m a fan of “covert” fight scenes. Scenes where two people are fighting but they’re both pretending that something else is going on. This one from Dreadnaught (1981) is one of the best.
By the way, the guy that choreographed this scene, later went on to choreograph The Matrixfilms,Crouching Tiger, Hidden DragonandKill Bill.
