I DO BITE MY THUMB SIR

Need to excite your students about Shakespeare? Or maybe you  just need a fresh approach to an old study text? Squire can help your students explore Shakespeare in a practical way, taking the plays off the page and onto the stage where they belong.

Shakespeare is responsible for some of the greatest plays ever written and by proxy some of the greatest fights. In fact most of Shakespeare’s actors were master fencers who insisted on adding as many fights as possible to every performance as a way of showing off their skills. In fact the first recorded Fight Director in the world was Richard Tarlton, Shakespeare’s lead actor until 1588. As a member of the prestigious London Masters of Defence Weapons Guild, it was Tarlton who first gave us the timeless duels of Romeo and Tybalt, Macbeth and Macduff and of course Hamlet and Laertes.

Stage combat by it’s very nature is physically active and requires practical solutions to creative problems. By studying the fights practically, students are encouraged to perform Shakespearean text and gain a greater understanding the plays and their staging.

The workshop covers basic unarmed stage combat skills which are then utilised in a staging of a Shakespearian text related to the students current area of study. How do we deal with text in a fight? What can a fight tell us about the rest of the play? What is the context of this fight? What are the weapons and fighting styles like? How would these fights of been performed in Shakespeare’s day?

In a full day session the workshop will then progress to weapons and how they are used in modern theatre in comparison to the original Globe Theatre.

Half Day (1-3 hours) £295 plus travel

Full Day £395 plus travel