Best Fencing Monologue

[Phrogger]

A student in our club is trying out for a part in a play and wishes to use a fencing-related monologue to show off his duelling skills. Any suggestions for specific passages from plays or movies?

[Craig]

A student in our club is trying out for a part in a play and wishes to use a fencing-related monologue to show off his duelling skills. Any suggestions for specific passages from plays or movies?

Princess Bride
Hamlet

[bigdawg2121]

Cyrano

[Purple Fencer]

Cyrano

I was gonna say....depends on which translation, tho...if you can find the one where the last line is "On the refrain I draw blood", use that....the description during the duel is nice and clear.

[Inquartata]

The Duel in Rhyme from Cyrano is a ballade, though; very flowery, and short on detail. I'd go with the final duel from Hamlet or possibly the brawl from Romeo and Juliet, myself.

Arguably, all of these are too archaic to use to explain modern fencing, however. Lots of stoccados and passatos and so forth...

[Phaeton]

I don't know how experienced your student is an as an actor but I would do anything but a fencing monologue. Perhaps arrange a separate demonstration, jot fencing down on the resume, or in a combat reel, but a monologue is really about expressing one's ability to act and/or versatility. It's about showcasing an honest emotional journey and the ability to make good tactical choices. The more gimmicks there are the less applicable the audition piece is to other things, and even if I want to try out for Mercutio, Hamlet, or Cyrano the choices the director makes will be based on the ability of an actor to act not stage combat ability. Stage combat is such a small part of almost any play it's often more or less inconsequential in a director's choice about the play. The only time where it'd make a big difference is if he's trying to apply for a choreography position otherwise everything will probably be choreographed for him.

Any fencing monologue will lack an emotional and tactical diversity that's key for a good audition piece.

The last piece of Hamlet contains no monologue during combat, neither by Laertes nor by Hamlet in any of the versions I've read or performed (although there may be one in one of the various Quartos that's left out from Hamlet scripts.). If memory serves it's also just sparse dialogue in Romeo and Juliet.

And that's with good reason. The Bard realized that chunks of dialogue break up action and leaves combat chatter to spidermanesque witty exchanges.

Cyrano is your best bet, but it's probably a very good idea to reconsider and showcase acting talent, something the director might actually care about.

[fatfencer]

There are actually at least 2 scenes that have Cyrano with his sword drawn and saying something memorable.

The one that most appeals to me is when he's dying.

The extemporaneous ballad he composes would require that the person doing the acting be able to convey that he is fighting another person wihtout one being there. This has the potential to be quite humorous. If he could memorize it in French... now THAT would be really funny.

A third scene is slightly before the ballad where he is chastising MontFleury.. but not much swordfighting there.

FF

[crquack]

My favorite one, after the 13th bout and a 7th loss is:
"A horse, a horse, a kingdom for a horse!"

[Phaeton]

Well if you're going to do Richard III you might as well do the: I killed her husband to marry her and then will kill her to marry someone else. Bwahahahaahahahahahahaahahha! Speech.

It's maybe perhaps the evilest thing I've ever read that means to take itself seriously.

[SupportCrew]

My daughter and her fencing teammate did the Princess Bride duel scene, and wound up being selected to present it at a State Teen Arts event. Great scene, fun to choreograph, and a blast to perform. I wound up using Sabre blades, and upholstery cording with inserted wire to make "school approved" rapiers!

[Phaeton]

Unless her friend is another facet of her personality (which would have made the the sword play quite bizarre) that wasn't a monologue but dialogue.

[Phrogger]

Thanks for the suggestions. I'll let y'all know which one he ends up doing.

[Purple Fencer]

The Duel in Rhyme from Cyrano is a ballade, though; very flowery, and short on detail. .

again....that really depends on teh translation used...I wish I could find my copy...maybe I can find the scene on line