The use of a knife in a stage fight is supposed to increase the level of suspense for the audience, but unfortunately it rarely does. I just never get the feeling that the actors portray the real feeling of lethality that a knife fight creates. Part of the problem is that knives are small so the audience doesn’t see much of a threat, so if the fight is to be interesting at all, the menace must come from the acting.
The three scenes often seen on stage are from West Side Story, A View From the Bridge, and Rebel Without a Cause. But for a look at an exciting knife fight, take a look at the film From Here to Eternity. It’s not long, it’s not fancy, and it is filled with menace. Ernest Borgnine and five inches of steel … that’s danger.
Here’s an exercise you might find useful. When I’m having trouble having young actors develop a sense of fear within the fight, I pass out black felt-tip markers instead of the prop knives. Sometimes it helps increase a level of real tension.
By the way, here’s a good spot to repeat my warning on using retractable knives – DON’T. It is not possible to use a retractable knife and keep your actors safe from harm. The blades sometimes don’t retract – even on knives that are superbly built and in excellent working condition. If the blade presses even slightly against the inner shaft of the grip, the blade will not retract, and you get one actor impaled with a blunt stick. If I could I would outlaw these things.
There are two ways of grabbing a knife or dagger. The one we see in most knife fights is the overhand grip, that is to say holding the knife as we do a screwdriver, with the blade controlled by the thumb and forefinger. This makes sense because it gives the fighter the greatest amount of distance under his control. The only drawback to this grasp is that it is a little weak at the wrist, so for an especially strong thrust the grasp may need to shift to something that looks like a hammer grip, although it gives the point a bit of an upthrust. This overhand grip is the one used by most people who consider themselves dangerous with a knife, those who expect to face their opponents. As that opponent is probably also holding a knife, the torso tends to round out somewhat so as to keep as far away from danger as possible. The legs of course will be slightly bent for better balance and ease of movement. Less obvious, but more important, is that the knife arm will be slightly bent, allowing for a quick thrust. A fearful fighter will extend his arm for maximum distance, but then he loses all credible thrusting power. The non-knife hand is actively engaged, ready to punch, grab, or block the opponent.
The underhand grip has the blade coming out of the bottom of the fist. This grip is used by the two extremes of knife users – either the opportunistic novice or the highly trained warrior. The novice usually has grabbed the knife with the intention of raising the knife up and then bringing it down in a severe stabbing arc, almost always against an unarmed or distracted victim. As such, there is no need to worry about distance, and the body often moves in very close indeed (think of the movie “Psycho”) Invariably, the novice will grab a single-edged knife in such a way that the blade edge is pointing towards himself rather than in the direction of the victim. No reason for this: it just “looks right” to the novice.
The highly trained fighter by contrast will grab the knife with a looser grasp, more like a reverse French foil grip, and have the edge pointing away from the forearm. This allows him to stab or thrust or cut or even let the unsharpened back edge of the blade rest against the forearm to use as a parrying surface. From this basic grasp he can shift back and forth from a tight reverse hammer grip for thrusting, to a tight reverse French grip for blocking and slashing. This is a very modern style of fighting taught first to special forces units, “commandos”, during the post Vietnam era, and has the look and feel of Chinese martial arts, but stripped down to its most utilitarian. While the novice will have the knife in the dominant hand, the warrior will hold it in the other hand, leaving the dominant free to punch or grab the opponent. This style of fighting is very advanced, and for stage must only be attempted under the direct supervision of a very experienced instructor.
For cutting and slashing attacks, go back to the section on sword fighting, which is really much the same as knife fighting except for the distance between the actors. But because of the nature of a knife fight, there isn’t going to be the same feeling of a back-and-forth command of weapons. Indeed, trying to pick off a knife attack with another knife as one would in a sword fight strains believability to the breaking point. In a typical stage knife fight, there will be very few actual cuts and thrusts, most of the action being evasions of slashes and feint attacks, with the intent of trying to keep the opponent off-balance mentally while setting up a kill shot. Many choreographers will use the closeness of the fight to introduce unarmed techniques – strikes, kicks, and throws – to help draw out the fight and provide more storytelling opportunities. Other techniques, such as traps and binds, should not be attempted unless taught by an experienced instructor. These are advanced techniques, and not because they are difficult. As a matter of fact, they are very simple to perform and very believable. But the margin of error in performing them is exceptionally small. A slight variation in arm placement can easily dislocate a shoulder or hyperextend an elbow.
The knife fight itself should have a “jittery” look, as though the knife blades could bring fiery death if it should even happen to touch someone. I mentioned earlier that I once had a heck of a time doing the choreography for a high school production of West Side Story. Try as they might, they just couldn’t convey that sense of danger required for the rumble. So I finally made sure that they all arrived to one rehearsal wearing their regular good clothes. (I told them that they were only going to rehearse the dance scene that day.) Then I passed out black felt-tip markers instead of the prop weapons and had them go through the fight. Finally, I got the panicky look of terror that we needed as the dancers tried to protect their clothes from permanent damage.
Here are some elements that can add a little bit of safety to knife fight techniques:
• Show & Go. Because the actors are going to be standing much closer together than they would in a sword fight, it is imperative that they learn the concept of show & go when thrusting and slashing or cutting. The idea is to give your partner a strong enough visual cue before the knife gets within touching range. As with sword work, people will forget a move now and then, so these extra cues can be enough to clue-in the actor as to what the next move is. They also actually help the audience, so that they get a split-second glimpse of what the danger is before the attack either fails or succeeds. Granted, it’s a slight exaggeration of normal movement, but one that helps the show, so we keep it.
• Naturally there will be many times that the aggressor will need to close distance when attempting a slash, so to our “show & go” we add a “step & prep”. The aggressor takes a step in towards the victim, then preps for the cut by extending the arm fully to the side (letting the audience in on what is about to happen). Be sure to make eye contact on the step in. The next part is crucial. The aggressor’s cue for initiating the swing is when the victim begins his reaction. None of this “go ahead and swing; I’ll duck in time.” That’s how actors get smacked in the head.
• Thrust out of distance. This one is easy. A simple one-two movement – show the knife by merely extending the arm and pointing to the intended target, and then take the step forward to close the distance and finish the attack. Sound familiar? Right, it’s the Show & Go while on the move.
• Thrust in-distance. Of course, when the actors are already within reach of each other and stepping in is not appropriate, we need to have a different prep. The “show” in this case is pulling the knife hand back to the hip with a little bit of a twist of that shoulder and hip, away from your partner. Then the hip and shoulder turn again towards the victim, leading the arm as it is extended.
• Blocking the knife. Some actors take the swordplay analogy too literally and think that they can engage the weapons blade to blade, blocking knife attacks with their own knife. Nice thought, but the look is hopelessly unrealistic. When a knife attack is blocked, it is either lightly batted away with the free hand or firmly blocked with either forearm. But it is not the knife itself which is engaged, only the knife hand or arm.
• The Bat-Away. Similar to the block, but actors tend to overdue it. For the bat-away, merely touch the attacking knife hand with the back or the palm of your free hand. The knife hand is not slapped away; this is a deflection only. Even though the look is to really slap the knife away, we only need to make minimal contact and then let the aggressor continue the pantomime of having his arm knocked off target.
• For the forearm block, again look back at the swordplay section. The arms will take the part of the sword, using obvious perpendicular blocks forearm to forearm.
When the time comes to do some virtual damage with the knife, I’ve already made it clear that a retractable knife should never be used. So what to do? Getting help from a fight instructor would be the first choice, because he or she will be able to set up a very realistic stabbing in less than a quarter of an hour. If you need to attempt any of the following without assistance, go very slowly and try a hundred variations from every conceivable angle until you get something consistently safe and believable.
• The upstage stab.
This is a variation of the old sword under the arm that has been parodied to death, but if done correctly is still very effective, especially if you have a bit of distance from the audience. The actors stand in profile to the audience and the aggressor merely stabs at the area of the victim slightly upstage of the victim’s body. The hand can still be aimed at the body, so long as the tip is pointing just upstage. If the victim can reach out slightly with his downstage arm, it will help mask the knife. Don’t let the blade go beyond the back of the victim; that will only get a laugh from the audience.
The reaction of the victim is what makes or breaks this illusion, for the reaction to both the stab and the pull out of the blade must be made to look as though the stab is to the center of the body, not upstage. Too often the victim turns slightly upstage, into the real arm movement, instead to selling the illusion. And notice how, even though the illustration above is from the upstage side, the knife still disappears from view blocked by the victim’s upstage arm.
• Accepting the blade.
This is the most difficult illusion to pull off, but also the safest, because only the victim has control of the action. This is used for a direct stab to the stomach and is especially useful when the knife blade is relatively long and difficult to hide. This stab would begin at a bit of distance, requiring the attacker to show, go, and then step in. During the go, which is a thrust, the victim can reach out as though to stop the attack. In reality, he is locking wrist to wrist so as to guide the attacking knife into the intended target. The aggressor can use the victim’s distracting hand to hide the fact that he has turned his own hand sideways, turning the blade safely away. Sounds hard to do? It is, which is why an experienced fight instructor is needed..
• In-distance punch stab. This is the one which is most commonly used. It’s fast and easy so long as you have a lot of spotters to check for audience sight lines. Go back to the unarmed section for the techniques used for the stomach punch. The punch stab is done the same way, except that at the moment the knife has disappeared from the audience’s view, the aggressor turns his wrist so the knife blade can be pressed sidewise along the stomach, the tip pointing safely away. It almost doesn’t mater where the actors are facing or standing so long as the entire knife hand disappears from audience view during the stab.
• “Retracting” knife. While working on a production of No Exit, I had to have the actor do multiple stabs with the victim being only feet away from the first row. Since I wouldn’t allow the use of a retractable knife, we needed to mix up the look of the staged stabs so that the audience wouldn’t be able to see how any one stab was performed. So even though I’m not terribly fond of this stab, here’s a case where it was necessary to thow it into the mix.
The “retracting” knife bit requires a knife which has a very small guard and an extremely blunt blade. The actors stand very close together, as in the punch stab above, but in this case they align themselves so that the stabbing takes place in full view of the audience. The stabbing arm must have the palm facing upstage and the back of the hand facing downstage, in effect hiding the handle. The blade is pointed at the victim, and the blade tip might even be touching the victim just before the stab. The handle is gripped very loosely. For the stab, the knife stays in the same place in space while the hand travels forward into the stomach, grasping the blade. After the appropriate victim reaction, the hand releases the blade and pulls back and grabs the handle.
upstage view
All of this has to be done without the audience seeing the fingers grip, release, and re-grip, with great attention to making sure that the handle is blocked from view by the aggressor’s forearm. (It’s also nice if the attacker doesn’t drop the knife.) When done correctly, the audience is completely convinced that they have seen a blade actually stab someone.
This simulation obviously violates my own cardinal rule about never pointing any weapon at any person at any time for any reason. And, just as obviously, it carries its own dangers. I include this here, with apologies, to show that is always a way around a seemingly intractable problem, and sometimes the choice is between the lesser of two evils. But in this case it is both safer and more effective than an actual retractable knife.
• Back stab.
A lot of murder mysteries have this, and it is remarkably simple to do, being a slight variation on the punch stab. Usually the victim is full front and the aggressor comes up from behind, raising the knife nice and high so the audience can see it.
When the knife is brought down for the stab, it is aimed straight down with the tip pointing to the ground, instead of arcing towards the victim. So that the victim knows when to react, the aggressor merely touches the victim using a slightly extended thumb or finger of the stabbing hand, the knife blade angled away from the victim. But since the aggressor’s left hand can provide the tap instead, the path of the knife blade need never be any closer than 12” away from the victim, for, as always, the audience has no depth perception. For his part, the victim needs to think carefully about the reaction, and not just collapse down. Rather, there has to be included a push out of the chest, keeping in line with the imagined path of the stab.
• Self stab. Especially made for Juliet’s death scene, but of course can be used for any show which requires a suicide by stabbing to the stomach. The easy way to go is for her to use the upstage stab as described above, but in this case the audience is staring too intently at Juliet to be fooled by that. When they have this much time to focus, they gain back a lot of the depth perception they normally lose. So the following variation can be far more believable and dramatic.
The actor faces the audience and gives them a good look at the knife. Grabbing the handle with both hands, the blade is slapped against the forearm at the moment of the thrust. The hand higher up on the hilt covers the turning motion of the nearer hand, blocking the twist of the wrist. For more specifics on this illusion read the Romeo & Juliet entry in the Violence on Stage section towards the end of this book.
• Cutting.
Again, I refer you back to the earlier sword fighting section for the details, but the basics again include first laying the flat of the blade along the part of the victim to be “cut” and then drawing the knife’s [dull] edge across or better yet back towards the aggressor, of course using the lightest, weakest grasp possible so as to remove any real pressure on the victim.
• Throat Slash. This is where most directors want to see blood. But blood FX knives are notoriously unreliable, and often drip before the slash. So I prefer using a regular (dulled) knife, and keeping the blood in the aggressor’s control. Since this is a close-in moment, the action itself needs to be performed slowly. This makes it both more horrifying and safer.
For most throat slashes, both actors are full front, with the aggressor standing behind the victim. The arm holding the knife goes all the way across the victim first, and the aggressor’s thumb gently lands at the throat just under the base of the victim’s jawbone. The slow slash is done with only the aggressor’s thumb making contact with the throat. Blood may not be necessary, but if the director insists on it, it can be applied by the aggressor. How? Somewhere on the set hide a small open jar of a sticky, viscous blood mixture (for this, often just a little lipstick mixed with baby oil is all you need). At some point before the slash, the aggressor merely scoops some blood out with thumbnail. For the slash, he merely paints the victim’s throat as the action is simulated. With a little practice, he can even get some of the blood from her neck onto the knife blade during the slash. The knife will then act as a secondary paintbrush, leaving a wonderfully straight line that the audience will believe is a knife cut. The very slowness of the movement only adds to the realism.
Traps & Locks
There is a whole raft of illusion designed to look as though one actor has immobilized another by either twisting a limb and painfully applying pressure to a joint. Sometimes they are included in a knife fight to allow the actors to get in close for a strike, throw or disarm. Most of these are taken from aikido and its parent discipline jujitsu. Although simple to perform, the margin for error is very small and so the possibility of doing real damage to the victim is very large. It only takes an accidental extra inch of force against an elbow or wrist to lead to some nasty ligament tears. For that reason they are to be considered advanced techniques, and we must relegate them to the list of those that must only be aught under the direct tutelage of an on-sight instructor.
If it should come to pass that for some reason your actors insist that they need to have one in their fight and that they know what they are doing, offer this challenge. Have the victim stand alone and get himself into the lock/trap. The aggressor must do nothing; standing three feet away, he only demonstrates his portion of the simulation for his only job is to provide the pantomimed justification for the illusion. If you like what you see, let them come within touching distance. But even then, it is ridiculously easy for the aggressor to accidentally twist a tendon beyond it’s capability, so be very leery of including these simulations without expert instruction.
The Butterfly Knife
It’s very rare when a show will have one or more of the fighters use a butterfly knife, and the only reason to do so is get that moment when the character pulls out the knife and goes through a flashy show of opening it. In the right hands, it’s quite impressive, for the parts of the knife flicker and flutter as the actor waves it about. It’s a special skill, not terribly difficult to learn but it has no practical application in a fight. It’s just there for show, kind of like baton twirling or those silly nunchuck moves. It not really a part of stage combat, or a real knife fight for that matter, but if for some reason you want this in your show, here are some tips.
Keep in mind that there are really only four moves you can do with a butterfly knife: while holding one of the handles, you can swing it open, swing it closed, twirl the free handle left, and twirl it right. That’s it. If you can do that, you’ve already mastered the basics. The rest of the time is going to be spent combining those moves into as many variations as possible so that it appears that the knife is doing a lot more than that. But that’s all just illusion, for you can only open, close, twirl left, and twirl right.
Of course, the artistry comes in the way you combine the moves while not rapping your knuckles. Opening and closing the knife as it spins in a half-circle twirl (shown above) has one look. Starting in one direction as you open and then reversing as you close has another. So does opening and closing as the hand turns upside down. So does opening and closing left to right compared to forward and back. I enjoy working in a few moves that borrow from cape techniques of bull fighting, and naturally each person will find his or her own style. But no matter what the finished routine looks like, the one constant is that the weapon always remains in motion, never completely closing or opening until the final pose. By working all of the geometric planes, you can really disrupt the audience’s ability to focus on the movement and identify which is the blade and which is the free handle.