Brining Photography Weblog

Knickers & Vests

This strangely-titled piece concerns Triangle Theatre Company's latest project is descibed as 'an “oral history of the PE kit” and archive memories of the compulsory PE experience particularly of fitness regimes in school since 1948' 

For Knickers & Vests the company assembled a team of actors in-role as “sports instructors” to document memories during or immediately after exercise. Knickers & Vests begins with the premise that sports phobia is linked to a dread of embarrassment and aims to re-member and re-enact sports histories via the tactics of both reluctant and zealous sports participants, of skivers and misfits, and to investigate “discipline” and the body as they are understood in both sport and theatre.

Thus, a motley crew of sports 'instructors' led the parade for the opening ceremony of the British Transplant Games held in various venues around Coventry.

The assembled crowd were initially unsure as to whether the team were for real or not, but doubts were quickly dispelled once the routine got underway, climaxing with the sudden activation of the fountains outside the Herbert Museum. 

More appearances of these top athletes are planned building, hopefully, to an appearance at the opening of the Olympics in 2012!

For more information on the "Knickers & Vests" and other Triangle projects, please visit their website

The Wild Swans

Hans Christian Anderson's fairytale story of 'The Wild Swans' has been dusted off and given a new airing by Playbox Theatre Company at their Dream Factory base during June and July.

In a far away kingdom, there lives a king with his twelve children: eleven princes and one princess… what follows is a thrilling tale of determination, loyalty, love, witchcraft and rescue.

The spectacular production is directed by Mary King and is well worth a view. For tickets and information, contact Playbox

Last Women

Triangle Theatre Company's production of Carran Waterfield's 'Last Women' play took to the stage at the Belgrade Theatre for a week's run and was well received by critics and audiences alike.

Having previously photographed the rehearsal and produced police-style 'mugshot' prints for the front-of-house display, I returned to photograph the dress rehearsal just prior to the opening.

Although the production has now finished playing at the Belgrade, it is available for touring. Contact Carran Waterfield for more details. The Last Women website can be found here and more photos from the production are in this gallery

Scary Play

I was recently invited to return to my old stage lighting roots by theatre director Stewart McGill and light his latest production of Judith Johnson's "Scary Play" at the Dream Factory in Warwick.

As it's been while since I have lit a theatre production it was a daunting prospect but one which I thought sounded like an interesting project so decided to accept.

Was it a success? You can judge for yourself by viewing the production's photo gallery 

Family Matters

Following last year's successful tour of her one-woman play "Ten Days That Shook The Kitchen" Ginny 
Davis has now written a sequel called "Family Matters" which will commence performances shortly.

To quote from Ginny's website:

"Ruth Rich, middle-class, midlife mother of teenage children, has returned to middle England after a spell abroad with Husband’s work. Dragging herself to consciousness from dreams of close encounters with Colin Firth, she charts a hapless and obstacle-strewn path through issues all too familiar to parents of hormonal teenagers - smoking, body piercing, driving lessons,  arguments over  who sleeps where when a boyfriend comes to stay etc.

Through a process of trial and (mostly) error, Ruth learns how not to behave at school football  matches and what not to say about cosmetic surgery and your friends’ sex lives.  She decides to throw a homecoming party to reintegrate the family into the local community.   Friends old (the perfect and perfectly awful 34DD-cupped Timmy’s mum) and new (the possibly even worse control freak Rachel’s mum) gather for what turns into the party from hell.

More details on both productions can be found here