We take for granted the fact that both men and women have the right to vote, but there was a time when that was not the case. Her Naked Skin is a play by Rebecca Lenkiewicz that is set in 1913 at the height of the Suffrage movement in England. It tells the love story of Celia (Bea Svistunenko) and Eve (Claudia) during the sometimes violent fight for women’s rights. It is directed by Rose Reade, and depicted the hardship faced by the women who rebelled, the hunger strikes and force feeding. The play contained several strong scenes, but also very tender scenes as the two lovers find each other. For those that want to know more I can recommend reading the preview on the Varisty webpage (and the review here). There is also a post in the Cambridge Tab about the play.
I saw the ad for the play and thought it sounded interesting so contacted the two producers Josie Wastell and Hannah Calascione and sent them the link to my photos from Thing with Feathers. They were more than happy to have me come photograph the dress rehearsal. I like theatre plays, you have great light on the stage, lots of things happening and human emotions.
For this rehearsal I mostly used my 50 mm lens. It was a great focal length for everything that took place at the front of the stage. There were some occasions when I would have wanted to zoom in or out, but overall it was just about right. I arrived a bit early to get a chance to talk to the cast and crew, and get some information about what would happen during the play, if there were any particular things I should not miss. They excitedly told me about the steamy mattress scene, but forgot to mention a short fight scene in the parliament that caught me unawares. I shot in manual mode, which meant I had to stay constantly aware of the light levels as they changed between scenes, but I am getting better as it went a lot smoother than the last time.
It was an amazing play. If you have the chance then go see it. The show is running until Saturday May 17th (2014). It took me way longer to edit all these photos than I expected, but I enjoyed looking at each photo and then trying to make adjustments so that what the actors were feeling came through to the viewer or to enhance some detail in the photo that I thought was important. I did a lot of selective brightening and darkening of parts of the images to lead the eye to my main subjects. It was an interesting journey reliving the play in front of the computer over the last few evenings.
– Johannes
Reviews: Varsity (4/5), The Cambridge Student (3/5), The Tab
Beneath the Skin by Francesca Ebel
Cast
Celia Cain – Bea Svistunenko
William Cain – Aoife Kennan
Florence Boorman – Yasmin Freeman
Mrs Shliefke/Suffragette – Olivia Bowman
Emily Davison/Suffragette – Lauren Brown
Clara Franks/Suffragette – Sasha Brooks
Mary Nicholson/Suffragette – Julia Kass
Felicity/Suffragette – Tara Kearney
Mrs Briggs/Suffragette – Rosanna Suppa
Wardress/Nurse/Suffragette – Eleanor Colville
Kier Hardie/Dr Klein – Orlando Gibbs
Herbert Asquith/Dr Vale – Kyle Turakhia
John Seeley/Hunt – James McMullan
Edward Grey/M.P – Lily Lindon
Robert Cecil/Charlie Power/M.P – Gabriel Agranoff
Lord Curzon/Potter – Harry Gower
Eve Douglas – Claudia
Miss Brint/Suffragette – Joanna Clarke
Augustine Birrell/MP – Rox Middleton
Brown/Dr Parker/MP – Jamie Armitage
Projection Suffragette – Rhiann Pickering, Eve Waller
Production Team
Director – Rose Reade
Assistant Director – Marco Young
Executive Producer – Alex Cartlidge
Producer – Hannah Calascione, Josie Wastell
Assistant Producer – Lewis Scott
Technical Director – Sam Payne
Sound Designer – Teresa Baron
DSM – Ellie Dobbs
Stage Manager – Phoebe Elliott-Mills
Costume Designer – Ellie Beveridge
Lighting Designer – Shanti Daffern
Hair & Make-up Designer – Georgia Thurston
Set Designer – Matilda Ettedgui
ASM – Elisabet Lindgren
Publicist – Ru Merritt
Chief Electrician – Ben James
Publicity designer – Clara Potter-Sweet
Fight Choreographer – Jamie Armitage
Trailer Cinematographer – Greg Forrest
Photographer – Johannes Hjorth
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