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Working with two students, a fight director demonstrates how to construct a believable, yet safe fight sequence. He discusses the importance of action and reaction and emphasises the benefit of practicing the techniques.

Split the students into pairs to work on some trust exercises, such as holding each other’s body weight, leading each other blindfolded around a series of obstacles, and falling into each other’s arms. Discuss the importance of trust when stage fighting. Begin with a simple slap and ask pupils to consider the reaction of being slapped, rather than the action. It is vital that the reaction is believable. Ask students to try to make a slap look as realistic as they can, without worrying about trying to make the sound effect. Move on to a punch using the same theory and then a ‘tussle’ as in the clip. Ask students to identify a fight scene in ‘Romeo and Juliet’ or another play. They should select one moment from it and use what they have learned to try to recreate that moment. Then they should add some of the surrounding dialogue to set the context.