Dale Christian College in Armadale.

We had a great show today at the Dale Christian College in Armadale with a total of 8 members attending. The class was small but very well behaved and interested. We had Emlyn’s games, firestarting, armour and weapons and firelighting followed by a short fighting display.

Derek and Gaynor showed off their firebug roots and Gaynor also lead the sharpshooters with the crossbows.  Judd, Mark and Matt showed off the range of armour and weapons available and waxed lyrical while I made the children work out what goes where with my armour scattered about.  Emlyn ran the games. Before the battle some of the boys helped me into my armour.

The fighting was brief but very well received. First Mark and Emlyn fought with Mark finishing off the invading Viking. Then Judd and I fought in our full armour. My sword belt was on the wrong way around and my helmet fell off but despite this I was able to defeat Judd.

Given a moment to breathe we then had a final fight in which I recruited two Irish (Mark and Emlyn) to help me fight Judd and Matt. Taking on Matt I was overconfident about finishing him fast so let the Irish hold off the well armoured Judd. Unfortunately Matt was too fast and I was unable to finish him quickly. The Irish fought well but Judd ended up finishing them off. Matt managed a disarm on me and brought me down where upon I was captured.

After much debating and explaining from Derek, the children agreed to let me live.  The teacher and the children were impressed.

Afterwards we had a look at the things they had built, including 3 trebs and an extraordinarily lethal morning star, and were ourselves very impressed.

Thanks to Mark, Emlynn, Judd, Matt, BJ, Gaynor and Derek for coming along and making a very fun show of it.

Sam

Day in Pompeii Parts III & IV

Well folks, we wrapped up the final of our Day in Pompeii shows for the corresponding exhibit at the WA Museum and it was undoubtedly some of our finest work.

Pictures are up for our Third and Fourth shows.

The ebb and flow of a great show is something that’s usually quite hard to put your finger on but one thing is for certain, you know it when you see it.

The grand entrance of Senator Titus and his Domina (and accompanying Praetorian Guardsmen), the Processori (introduction of the Gladiators) and the brutal (and quick) bloodshed of the captured barbarians killing each other in the arena are always quick to get the audience into things.

Along with the introductions and brief descriptions of weaponry and armour, there is also the explanation of how the crowd is meant to help the good Senator Titus decide whether a gladiator lives or dies after they’ve yielded in a fight.

Instead of just thumbs up or down (like a movie review) it’s thumb sideways (lives) and down (dies) and a surprising amount of the crowd proves themselves quite bloodthirsty in demanding that the losing gladiators, who have lost their favour so, be put to a quick and honourable death.

A myriad of different fights presented a wide range of fighting styles and deathly blows, from the heavy-on-heavy of two gargantuan Murmillos pummeling each other, to the lithe and nimble Retiarius slashing and spearing the Dimachara (two swords) or a Thracean or two.  There’s even a captured Dacean fighter that proves himself quite well with his native chopping spear, the Falx, while he leaps and chops his way through his fellow captives, fighting his way towards freedom… or a glorious death in the arena.

All up, a wonderful series of shows, and an exhibit that’s closing soon, so you should definitely check it out!

Day in Pompeii – Part I & II

Pictures are up, of course, so be sure and intermingle your bloodlust during reading with the eye-pleasing colour and pageantry of the exhibition as well.

Grey Company was recently contracted by the WA Museum to perform in front of the museum during the "Day in Pompeii" exhibit, and we were only too happy to oblige.

The fact that an exhibit of this importance, with 2,000 year-old artifacts from one of the most fascinating of ancient cultures, almost perfectly preserved in volcanic ash, was coming all the way to humble Perth was only slightly more impactful to our club than the idea that, as what amounts to a theatre performance group, our club is perfectly suited to the crowd interaction (and bloodthirstiness) of the classic Roman Collosseum.

We aim to please.

The first performance day was at the end of May and the latest performance was yesterday, June 20th, and both were phenomenal.

For both Sundays worth of shows, 4 in total, the crowds were both thick and excellent, cheering loudly for their favourite gladiators and issuing harsh judgements of those that they felt deserved the "thumbs down" or a suggestion to our honourable Tribune, the glorious and impetuous Titus Titinius Geminus, that the defeated gladiator be quickly put to death.

For each show, the setup entails a somewhat standard circus-like atmosphere and ensuing performance.  The classic scenarios for each show included:

The crowd tends to favour those with a flair for showmanship and honour, combined with skill and deadly accuracy.  A lumbering Murmillo will tend to fair quite poorly to a lightly-armoured and agile Retiarius, especially if the "pretty" one has the favour of the crowd.

An honourable battle, fought with skill and energy (with that showmanship, of course) may get a gladiator’s life spared, should he/she fall to their opponent, or it may gain a gladiator considerable honour in the arena.

And of course, no honour can compare to that which the All-on-all winner receives… The Wooden Sword of Freedom.

The Rudis, or wooden sword, is a practicing weapon of the gladiator so that they may train in killing without actually killing.  It is a replica of the Gladius, the sword that they are named after and may die by, and so the wooden replica represents their freedom and ability to travel the lands of the Republic of Rome as a free man with rights and privilege.

The final battle of each show is fought for such a prize, and it is fought with much energy.

All on All, no quarter asked, and none given, it is an absolute bloodmatch.

It is this the crowd comes to see and it is this that they love, their cheers of adoration and bloodlust raining down upon the mighty warriors shoulders and ears.

You should come check it out.  You know you want to.

Next show, July 18th 2010.  It’s free and it’s awesome.

Santa Maria College Rundown

Well it was another school show last night. Santa Maria Catholic College in Attadale this time. An All girl’s school. I believe there were about 150 girls there and we could tell when they screamed. This year we were in the school gym. It was much easier to get the trailer close to and bring all the gear in to set up. There was even a nice water fountain just outside the doors.

Everyone got to the event early which was good. So we all started bringing in the display gear and setting up different stations around the gym. We had crossbows shooting, trying on armour, woading, runes stamped in leather, costumes and the display board and artefacts.

The plan was to do the fighting performance first then man the activities so the girls could roam from station to station having a go at all the activities.

Paul tried a slight change to the order of the fighting performance which worked well. (Certainly gave me time to get my breathe back between fights)

We had 8 fighters so we were split into pairs.

Sam and Matt P fought Judd and Chris as the first fight. Sam and Judd seemed to be doing a beautiful dance fight as they sweeped around the room. Matt P against Chris was a bit more brutal. I know Chris was slaughtered but I can not recall if Sam or Judd died.

Second fight was between Me and Frank vs Lara and Andrew. I took on Andrew with his two swords. I then tried to drive the butt of my glaive thru Andrew, which seemed to be my whole fighting technique for the night. It did work!. I killed Andrew and then came to help Frank against Lara. You know, I don’t think I have heard Lara swear before when she realised she now had both of us to fight. I tried to hang back but she kept hitting Frank with her two handed axe so we had to kill her. She died beautifully and gracefully.

Next Paul got the teachers to choose 8 girls from the audience to come up and pick a fighter to fight for them. The winning Fighter would make the Girl the "Most Beautiful girl in the School" Not quite sure how the killing of people makes her the most beautiful but I was willing to try for the Lady Sophie. ( yay I got a girls name I could remember and pronounce)

Each fighter was chosen by a girl. They were very clever in their naming of their fighter.-"I will have the one on the end or the one next to the guy with the yellow shield." I was chosen by my feathers on my helmet and Paul advised me that later the crowd was chanting my names as "feathers" as I tried to make Lady Sophie the most beautiful girl in the school.

The last girl to choose a fighter – Matt P, got to decide who he would fight. As Paul put it – pick the fighter belonging to the girl you want to knock out of the competition.
She made Matt fight Andrew. Andrew was our only fighter without armour but he did have two swords. He was moving beautiful putting in some lovely shots but he was murdered by Matt in the end.

Chris was up next against me. Me and my glaive killed Chris. He died well

I think it was Lara vs Frank next. There was some fight dancing by Lara and her axe and stomping by Frank and his sword and shield but in the end I think Lara won [edit:Frank won.]. (I was trying to catch my breathe by this time as I had realised I had to fight Matt in the next round)

Of Course that left Sam and Judd. This time Judd won. There was some lovely shots put in by both guys and you can really see they have been practicing together as the fighting was so smooth.

Next I got to fight Matt P. I thought he would kill me but somehow I killed him first. I think my glaive has been missing the shows and is making up for all the shows it has missed by killing everything within range. And it has a long range

Judd had to fight Lara [edit: Frank]. Judd won.

Before Judd and I fought, the Losers got to fight to the death. It was brutal. Matt kept trying to stop Lara backing into the audience before killing her. Chris was killed by Sam I think. Andrew was killed by Frank. In the end it was Frank vs Matt. We had to stop the fight to undress Frank as his leather baldric was interfering with his sword arm. In the end Matt turned his back and started walking away so Frank killed him with a blow across the back.

Now it was up to me to Kill Judd.  I had thought Judd would kill me as I was running out of steam. But glaive had other ideas. Judd put a good shot into my side so I dropped the glaive to "hold my injury" thinking the death shot was coming but then I remember my little curved back up sword I was wearing. (Paul made this sword for me about 15 years ago but I never had a scabbard for it so did not wear it as my support weapon. But TA DA he had recently made me one) so I drew out my bitty sword hoping Judd would realise it was not lanyarded and as Judd ran towards me I jutted him.

And so Lady Sophie was titled "the Most Beautiful Girl in School" I think she was embarrassed a little.

After a 5 minute recovery it was on to the activities. Imogen bravely manned the costuming but was over whelmed by the girls. I tried to remind them that we are all Ladies so let’s behave like ladies. But they were still feral. Imo took her first show injury by getting elbowed in the face by one of the girls trying to get to the costumes. She was ok but moved on to Woading replacing me as my painting of Boars on girls foreheads was not quite working. I was painting a new breed. It was a dolphin/boar and I was telling the girls names they will called them names like Salty.

All the activies went very well. We ran out of leather for runes, out of blue face paint for woads and several dresses and belts will have to be repaired in the onslaught from girls trying to grab things to wear to be Princess.

Matt P did a nice questions and answers session at the end. The audience had some very good questions to ask. We ate beef rolls and juice then packed up and went home.

It was a good show and I did enjoyed it. It reminds me why I keep making the kiddy costumes so they can go feral trying them on.

Special thanks to Imogen for coming along and setting up the costume display so well and helping with the activities. Thank you to Matt for coming and collecting the tubs of costumes and bringing them in his car then reversing the trailer into our car port.

Cheryl aka Feathers

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