The Good Soul of Szechuan

This morning I went to photograph The Good Soul of Szechuan of Bertolt Brecht. The show is directed by Jake Thompson and Edith Franklin, and produced by Katurah Morrish. We spent a bit over an hour staging different photos with the characters from the play. Here is a selection.

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We started with an elevator shot. The ambient light was not that flattering so added a flash to the mix.
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Ronald Prokeš as Yang Sun, dancing in a disco with a giant noose. Because why not?
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Joe Spence (as Shen Te) and Ronald Prokeš. They had two giant spotlights providing the illumination. For this photo we just used one of them.
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A moody shot of Ronald Prokeš
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Joe Spence and his little furry friend. I first shot this in silhouette, but Joe wanted to show of his stunning makeup.
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Zephyr Brüggen, playing the mother of Joe’s character.
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Joe and Ronald, a mix of disco lights and spotlights.
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Zephyr Brüggen, shine all light on me. It is my sons wedding but have a look at this.
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Tara Kearney, grumpy.
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Joe loves the camera, the bigger the better.
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Zoe Barnes as the somewhat crazy Wang.
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Because why stop when the glass is full when you can get water splattering…
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Tara, Joe and a set of lava lamps. I asked them to move forward to get more shadows on their faces.
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One more lava lamp shot, I like how the lamps light their silhouettes. They were acting out a scene, but I am not sure if they were sticking to the script or adlibing it. The shape of one of the lava lamps looks like a baby, which was what they were talking about.
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Zephyr Brüggen, Zoé Barnes, Ronald Prokeš, Nathaniel Hess, Quintin Langley-Coleman, Tara Anne Kearney and Francesco Anselmetti.

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Read more about the play in the Varsity review (4.5/5 stars).

Cast
Shen Te – Joe Spence
Mrs Shin – Tara Kearney
Mrs Yang – Zephyr Brüggen
Sound – Francesco Anselmetti
Yang Sun – Ronald Prokes
Wang – Zoe Barnes
First God/Mr Shufu – Quintin Langley-Coleman
Second God/Unemployed Man – Nathaniel Hess
Production Team
Director – Jake Thompson, Edith Franklin
Producer – Katurah Morrish
Publicity Designer – Tom Chisholm
Drag Consultant – Daniel Timoney
Crucifix Carpentry – Django
Photographer – Johannes Hjorth

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