Sheesh! I'd a helluvalot rather get poked with a foil (blunted tip, flexible blade) than with a broomstick! That could leave a bruise and a half!

A local production of Hamlet at Seattle's Intiman Theater was very well done. The fencing match between Hamlet and Laertes was with sword-and-dagger (as in the Olivier movie), and it had obviously been worked out by a good fight choreographer, and it had to have been well rehearse. Fine bit of stage swordplay, which one doesn't see all that often.

Don Firth