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It's been said that all's fair in love and war, but in Linganore High School's production of "Romeo and Juliet," the lines between the two get a little blurry.

The play, which opens today at 7 p.m., promises audiences a tale of star-crossed lovers, but it also features several intense sword fights, which many students said was their favorite part of the show.

Three characters in the play are killed in sword fights: Tybalt, Mercutio and Paris.

While Linganore High plays have featured stage combat before, director Julian Lazarus said that this was his first show to feature sword fighting.

Stage sword fights differ from fencing, and he wanted the cast to train in safety and technique so that it would ring true. He also encouraged the actors to show emotion during the choreographed duels, and to react when "wounded."

"Stage fighting is all about making it look like I'm trying to hurt you, but in a safe way," he said.

Still, students practicing the choreographed fencing on Monday had to be told to reign in their enthusiasm more than once.

Alex Richardson, a 15-year-old sophomore who plays Romeo, is enjoying learning the swordfights more than his lines.

"I've done regular shows," he said. "I wanted to see what it would be like to do a Shakespeare play."

Alex said the play still resonates with teenagers because they still need to learn the morals and the issues it presents.

Aaron Blow, a 17-year-old senior who plays Benvolio, said besides the sword fighting, the play gives students a chance to make a classic their own.

"Pretty much everyone knows ‘Romeo and Juliet," he said.

Brian Ulander, a 17-year-old senior who plays Mercutio, said his favorite part of the play was fighting and dying.

"I do get to say, ‘a plague on both your houses,'" he said.

Ayla Mangold, a 17-year-old senior playing Friar John, also gets an indirect role in the ever-present violence of the play. Her character's failure to get a letter from Juliet to Romeo causes the star-crossed lovers to take their own lives.

"I'm inadvertently the cause of the whole suicide thing," she said.

Even Juliet, played by 17-year-old senior, Jordan Garvey, said her favorite part of the play was the swashbuckling.

"I honestly like watching the swordfights," she said. "It's really well done."

Still, the play isn't all about violence and swordplay, and Jordan said it also showcased a variety of the students' other talents. "This play really shows people the level of skill we have as high schoolers," she said.

And in addition to the intense physical violence of the play, there is a fair bit of emotional violence as well. Paul Dook, a 16-year-old junior, said his favorite part of the role was getting to yell at Romeo. "I get to scream at him," he said. "It's a lot of fun."

Besides the investment of practice into learning lines and fighting with sharp pieces of metal, students had to assemble a scaled-down set of a balcony in Verona.

Maggie Noel, a 17-year-old senior, has worked as a tech on the play. She said that everything is organized and ready backstage for the play to commence. She said assembling and painting the sets has been difficult, but taking them down will be the biggest challenge of the play. "I don't even want to think about it yet," she said.

E-mail Christian Brown at chbrown@gazette.net.

Linganore High School presents "Romeo and Juliet"

-7 p.m. today, Friday and Saturday, and 2 p.m. Saturday and Sunday

-Linganore High School, 5850 Eaglehead Drive, Ijamsville

-Tickets are $5

-For information, call director Julian Lazarus at 240-566-9400.