Yesterday the play Love and Information by Caryl Churchill had their dress rehearsal at Corpus Playroom. The play is directed by Bali Birch-Lee and is the late show this week. It is a kaleidoscope of emotions and situations, which was very fun to photograph. Here is a glimpse from the evening.
Em Miles and Kate Wainer sharing a bottle of red wine.Xanthe Burdett and Hollie Witton. Dispair!
“My head’s too full of stuff.”
Dolores Carbonari fidgeting with her mobile phone and Hollie Witton reading a book in the background.
“It’s quiet here.”
“I like it quiet.”
Em Miles comforting Kate Wainer. For this shot I decided to include a bit of the chair in the foreground, to give the photo more depth.Glen Collier is upset with Hollie Witton. Notice the split of black and white in the background.Glen Collier, Dolores Carbonari and Kate Wainer. In this Dolores splits the frame in two, almost creating two separate images with Glen upset and Kate lost in thoughts.Em Miles on the phone.
“Chicken Tikka Masala?”
Dolores Carbonari and Hollie Witton cuddling. Glen Collier and Dolores Carbonari. I usually shoot at around f/4.5 in the theatre, because of constraints by available lights, which gives a limited depth of field. Here only Dolores is sharp.
“Why do they need to know all this stuff?”
Glen Collier and Xanthe Burdett. This play has so many little scenes, and many layers.Kate Wainer, Xanthe Burdett, Glen Collier, Hollie Witton and Dolores Carbonari watching an imaginary TV.Glen Collier, Kate Wainer and Xanthe Burdett. Glen does an impression of a T-rex.
“And dinosaurs!”
Kate Wainer, Xanthe Burdett and Hollie Witton. Here Xanthe and Hollie hugging in the background provides context for Kate, helping the photo tell a story.Hollie Witton and Xanthe Burdett. Rather than stepping in close I stepped back to include a bit more of the room in the frame. Closeups are great, but if every photo is a closeup you loose out on the environment and all photos start to look the same.
“Do you remember that hotel, we took a room for a couple of hours in a hotel, there was green wallpaper and we stood there kissing.”
Kate Wainer and Xanthe Burdett. Again I am playing around with framing. Here I am also conscious of Xanthe’s shadow on the wall.Dolores Carbonari and Glen Collier. Cropping in closer to show their emotions.
“They say time, you may be able to forget, even if it’s a long time.”
Kate Wainer and Em Miles. Looking through the photos three months later, I see that this one would have benefitted for a slightly tighter crop as there is a bit too much blank space in the top right corner. There is also a slight tilt to the photo. I have a tendency to not hold my camera straight, which here creates a sense of unbalance to the photo.Kate Wainer, Xanthe Burdett and Em Miles. Xanthe standing on a chair in the middle of the photo splits the frame in two with Kate by the table in the kitchen and Em reading in her corner.Glen Collier and Hollie Witton discussing their potential future.
“You can’t have children?”
“So it makes a difference does it?”
Dolores Carbonari and Glen Collier in one of the most emotional scenes. Glen’s character has lost his ability to recognise his wife.Dolores Carbonari and Glen Collier. After the dress rehearsal we redid a couple of scenes for a trailer, and this was one of the scenes we filmed (Youtube link at the bottom of the blog post).
“I don’t want you to love me, I don’t know you”
Glen Collier as the estranged husband.Kate Wainer and Em Miles sitting next to each other, but it might as well be on opposite sides of the earth.
“…and he only has two months to live so I thought we could…”
Dolores Carbonari doing a monologue while tearing apart a tulip.
In China white is death and here black is death but ghosts are white of course so a chessboard is death against death, and blood of course could be death but it’s lifeblood isn’t it, if you look at the flower it’s so astounding.
Kate Wainer and Em Miles. I took several versions of this photo, but opted for this version which was a slightly wider shot including the letters spelling out ‘Love’ on the bookshelf.Hollie Witton and Dolores Carbonari.
“I feel as if I’m choosing.”
“Of course.”
“But I feel like I’m in the front seat of a roller coaster.”
Kate Wainer and Em Miles
“Do you love me?”
“Don’t do that.”
Get your tickets for Love and Information on Corpus Playroom’s webpage. It plays 26-30th January 2016.
Many thanks to the cast and crew for a fun dress rehearsal!
Cast
Actor – Hollie Witton, Glen Collier, Em Miles, Kate Wainer,Xanthe Burdett, Dolores Carbonari
Production Team
Director – Bali Birch-Lee
Assistant Producer – Will Bishop
Producer – Olivia Buckland
Assistant Director – Eva O’Flynn
Photographer – Johannes Hjorth
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