The Great Improvization

Last weekend (forgive me for not posting this sooner) was the first performance of the new Hamlet workshop. I was playing Hamlet in the final scene (the duel), and Caryl was playing Laertes.

During the final scene, the blocking calls for me (Hamlet) to knock the fencing foil out of Laertes' hand after I get stabbed, and then step on the blade to stop him from picking it up, and then I hand my own foil to him and stab him with the one he just stabbed me with (I should probably change the pronouns, since the character is being played by a woman in this cast).

Anyway, during all the rehearsals, when I knocked the foil out of her hand it stayed onstage, not rolling off.

On performance night, all through the scene leading up to that incident I was nervous about the possibility of it rolling off stage and we wouldn't know what to do (it was only a workshop, but still, a performance is a performance). And lo and behold, when I knocked the foil out of her hand, sure enough it rolled offstage, down into the front row of the seats. I was petrified, and so was Caryl, but then the improv kicked in, and we leapt down into the front row after it. I stamped on the blade there, and we did the switching of the foils right there, less than two feet from the front row of seats. Then, we started to climb back onstage without a word, and I took Caryl by surprise, stabbing her with the foil (don't worry, the play says it's unbated but we at OSP still kept the button on) as she was climbing back onstage. She was surprised, and had to crawl back up before falling over (Laertes is poisoned, remember?), and I leapt back up and finished the play.

I think the audience might actually have believed we planned it that way as a sort of gimmick. They loved it, that was for sure