Dan Morbyrne, co-creator of Real Live Theatre’s “The Life and Death of Queen Margaret,” is the combat choreographer for the play that tells the story of Queen Margaret of Anjou, a 15th-century Queen of England and the wife of Henry VI.
The play’s director, Toby Vera Bercovici, blocked the fight scenes first, but asked Morbyrne for an assist because he has studied stage- combat techniques.
His role, Morbyrne, said, was to “clarify the show’s violence, not create it.
Morbyrne’s interest in stage combat goes back to 1996, when he was a teenager taking classes at Shakespeare & Company in Lenox. He continued those studies from 1999 to 2001 as an acting student at DePaul University in Chicago.
There are two different ways to approach fight choreography, he says. The first is to be as historically accurate as possible. That means never using a style or tool that was not the practice during the time period of the performance.
The second style, and the one he’s employed for “The Life and Death of Queen Margaret,” is do whatever works.
This style is not an accurate representation, but rather it matches with the style of the play itself,” he said.
He didn’t have much choice: The “weapons” he had to work with are six serpentine carved-wooden staffs that are central to the play’s set, and are used as props throughout the play to suggest multiple other items.
The shape and weight of the staffs, he said, are “super awkward.” And because the weight isn’t distributed evenly, they are very unlike actual swords.
Because of the unique “weapons,” he said, he’s employed what he calls a “hyper-realistic fighting style. It’s like flipping into a new reality.”
Morbyrne spent a day training the actors and finetuning Bercovici’s staging of the play’s one battle scene and one fight sequence.
“Oftentimes,” he said, “a fight choreographer ends up being the one to simplify things rather than make them more complex.”
Of particular importance, he said, was to ensure that the actors follow a prescribed stage-combat safety protocol.
His advice to them: Always communicate with your partner. Make eye contact and bring up concerns as they arise.
Always be aware of where the end of your weapon is, and, once a battle is staged, never improvise. You don’t want to surprise your partner with an unexpected blow.
Finally, practice the sequences over and over again in slow motion until you can execute the moves properly and before you attempt to do it at performance speed.