“This ‘King Lear’ might be the best our theater critic has ever seen. Director Simon Godwin’s sleek production, with a consummate Patrick Page as the vain and foolish king, is definitive. The responsibility for this ecstatic outcome in the Klein Theatre can be spread among many actors and designers in this modern-dress enterprise: Julian Elijah Martinez and Matthew J. Harris as villainous Edmund and heroic Edgar, brothers whose rivalry ends in a savage knife fight choreographed muscularly by Robb Hunter…
“The younger rises when the old doth fall,” declares Edmund, a son so contemptuous of his elders that he’s complicit when Cornwall (Yao Dogbe) plucks out the eyes of Edmund’s father, Craig Wallace’s noble Gloucester. It happens gruesomely in front of us, in the play’s most barbaric moment, a marker of the depravity that afflicts this royal family. ”
The Washington Post
The Shakespeare Theatre
King Lear, 2023
Woolly Mammoth has suggested that reviewers not detail the last moments of the first act, and this critic will honor that request, noting only the plot points that Woolly Mammoth has revealed on their website. By the time the audience heads to the lobby for intermission, the office comedy banter has been disrupted by a shockingly graphic depiction of gun violence – effectively designed by Fight Choreographer Robb Hunter.”
DC Metro Theatre Arts
Woolly Mammoth
Gloria, 2019
“This production is full of stage fights. The trio flat out gets beaten to a pulp within the course of the performance. Someone has to be in charge of all of the fights to make sure the performers don't get injured for real. Robb Hunter's work on this show is so realistic I was left wondering how the actresses survive an eight show a week schedule after being bloodied and gauged at nightly.”
Broadway World
Signature Theatre
Masterpieces of the Oral and Intangible Heritage of Humanity, 2019
“Annalisa Dias [playwright] and Kathleen Akerley [director] as a duo audaciously dare the audience to look away from “4,380 Nights.” At the performance I attended, some tried. I saw people sincerely crying at what was before them especially during an Act I fight scene so well-choreographed by Robb Hunter that I shuddered. I heard folk during intermission discuss how un-nerved they were with the visceral nature of the production; some saying “I want to run away.” I heard others wonder if any of it could be true; that America might do such things, seemed not possible.”
DC Metro Theatre Arts
SignatureTheatre
4,380 Nights, 2018
“The amorous tussle that is “As You Like It” never comes more vigorously to life in the Lansburgh Theatre than when two guys strip off their shirts and go at it on the mat. It’s the wrestling match at the top of the show of which I speak, staged by fight director Robb Hunter with an electric vim that places in serious doubt how Orlando might extricate himself from this well-choreographed entanglement. Rarely does an “As You Like It” devote this much creative tension to the athletic battle…never again in The Shakespeare Theatre Company’s three-hour production, in fact, does the action of the play feel so completely engaged.”
The Washington Post
The Shakespeare Theatre
As You Like It, 2014
“A special nod goes to Robb Hunter’s fight choreography, which elicited gasps and visceral reactions from the audience.”
DC Theatre Scene
Woolly Mammoth
Gloria, 2018
“The cast is often funny, especially when Power and fight director Robb Hunter cook up a riotously choreographed fight sequence…”
The Washington Post
Studio Theatre
Vietgone, 2018
“One of the most persuasively staged fight scenes in memory.”
The Washington Post
Studio Theatre
Reasons to be Pretty, 2010
“Robb Hunter’s stellar fight choreography is intricate and clumsy looking enough to appear deceptively natural and spontaneous.”
DC Metro Theatre Arts
Studio Theatre
The Motherfucker with the Hat, 2013
“This brings me to the fight scene, which is the high point of the production’s fantastic technical support. The Metheny stage is a startlingly intimate space, and a tough venue for stage magic, but my God, what fight choreographer Robb Hunter has done...I sat perhaps thirty feet from the stage, and, but for my understanding of the Equity rules, I could not tell whether this was a real fight or not.”
DC Theatre Scene
Studio Theatre
Superior Donuts, 2010
“Hardened by war and personal loss, they inflict vengeful violence upon one another, adeptly choreographed by Robb Hunter, and the resulting injuries are extremely convincing.”
DC Theatre Scene
Signature Theatre
Masterpieces of the Oral and Intangible Heritage of Humanity, 2019
“Don’t think that because the focus is on three women that somehow the horror of all-out war will be softened. When Mitra smashes a rock on Layla’s hand, the scream and crumpling to the floor made the hairs on my neck stand up. This is a brutal time and these women are all warriors in their way. Kudos to fight choreographer Robb Hunter—these are women, but they aren’t dainty—they will destroy to survive and the physical action is dynamic.”
Maryland Theatre Guide
Signature Theatre
Masterpieces of the Oral and Intangible Heritage of Humanity, 2019
“’Masterpieces’ is an encounter well worth making, especially for those with adventure in their hearts and souls who want to cross some boundaries into the brutal and the eloquent. The production took my breath away with its verisimilitude about human cruelty (fight choreography by Robb Hunter) and human decency.”
DC Metro Theatre Arts
Signature Theatre
Masterpieces of the Oral and Intangible Heritage of Humanity, 2019
“The Walworth Farce was one of my favorite productions in Washington, DC last year, and Robb Hunter’s work as a fight choreographer on it was fantastic.”
DC Theatre Scene (Helen Hayes article by Mathew Gardiner)
Studio Theatre
The Walworth Farce, 2011
“Their de rigueur catfight (neatly choreographed by Robb Hunter) is spirited and inventive.”
The Washington Examiner
Studio Theatre
Legends!, 2011
“The verbal and physical interplay among the characters is what propels the action, which incorporates some vividly staged business by fight director Robb Hunter.”
Talkin’ Broadway
Studio Theatre
The Motherfucker with the Hat, 2013
“The opera has everything, and the fight choreography by Robb Hunter proved exciting stuff, particularly in the hair-raising knife fight by Carmen and a fellow factory girl.”
DC Theatre Scene
Washington National Opera
Carmen, 2015
“…extremely well-staged and provocative battle scenes. Special mention to Fight Directors Robb Hunter [and Craig Lawrence] for their innovative staging.”
DC Metro Theatre Arts
Avant Bard Theatre
King John, 2013
“Flawlessly executed fight choreography is a challenging feat in and of itself, but having that caliber of precision exist in a fight between two characters as they are actively played by the same actor is a flabbergasting sensation that is startlingly achieved by Fight Choreographer Robb Hunter. The knockout throw-down no-holds-bar violence between M’Closky and George (both played by Jon Hudson Odom) is masterfully crafted under Hunter’s skillful eye. While the physical performance is delivered by Odom, it’s clear from the dizzying exhaustion witnessed in this excursion that a well-versed fight choreographer has put their hands of authenticity all over the routine.”
Theatre Bloom
Woolly Mammoth
An Octoroon, 2016
“Also deserving of praise for accuracy is Fight Choreographer Robb Hunter, whose blocking of scenes at the end of the second act draws forth a disturbing and visceral response from the audience. Without going too readily into detail for fear of spoiling what unfolds, it can simply be said that Hunter’s pacing when it comes to fighting and brutality is exacting and because of that, the scenes are greatly intensified.”
Theatre Bloom
Mosaic Theatre Company
Blood Knot, 2017
“And the fact that the two don’t actually kill each other—despite coming close—is the work of Robb Hunter, the talented Fight Choreographer.”
DC Metro Theatre Arts
Mosaic Theatre Company
Blood Knot, 2017
“While Abramson seems willing to believe Malik, one of the prison’s military officers (Rex Daugherty), will go to any length, including physical and psychological abuse, to obtain a confession. This violent scene is so realistic (kudos to fight choreographer Robb Hunter) that it is difficult to watch, perhaps the reason some members of the audience chose not to return for the second act.”
Woman Around Town
Signature Theatre
4,380 Nights, 2018
“One can't help but feel Malik's pain as one watches Kamal act out being tortured during an interrogation. It is heart-wrenching to watch and the image manages to stick with one even hours afterwards.”
Broadway World
Signature Theatre
4,380 Nights, 2018
“The story is just getting wound up and about to get even crazier. Imagine a staged fight where the good white George and the bad white M’Closky, both played by the same character (who is played by the same actor Odom), have a fight with knives and tomahawks. Hands around necks. Rolling on the floor. Extraordinary. Hysterical. Hats off to choreographer Robb Hunter and Odom.”
DC Theatre Scene
Woolly Mammoth
An Octoroon (remount), 2017
“Robb Hunter as the other tragic hero of this tale, MacDuff is the anti-Macbeth in every way. He is a much younger Macduff than normally cast. Here, he is not a contemporary of Macbeth which adds an interesting layer to the split between the former friends, and makes the loss of his similarly youthful family all the more moving. A fearsome combination of machismo and male athleticism, Hunter also adds to the sexual under current that pervades many levels of this production. (Mr. Hunter also is listed as the fight director, and he has choreographed some visually stunning battle scenes, using a variety of rather nasty looking weapons of individual destruction, and some really nifty slow motion effects.)”
Broadway World
Baltimore Shakespeare Festival
Macbeth, 2007
Interviews/Video
Learn to Swordfight in a Day
Video - The Great Pretender Series from Vanity Fair
Fight for Your Right to Zombie
Interview/Article - Woolly Mammoth Theatre Co.
Bleeding is Fundamental
Interview/Article - Washington City Paper
Armed Actors; World of Theatrical Fighting
Interview/ Video - Associated Press
Smithsonian Associates Lecture
Article - DC Metro Theatre Arts