The Dumb Waiter
I hadn’t been involved in theatre since I finished high school, where I played the role of a demon in a cauldron in the Year 12 production of Terry Pratchett's Wyrd Sisters for my HSC...
Fast forward approximately a thousand years, and Lisa Goldzieher, director of Empty Space Productions, asked if I would be interested in collaborating on her upcoming production of Harold Pinter's The Dumb Waiter. I was admittedly completely unfamiliar with the material, but after a brief description of the story and setting, I was in. Having worked with Lisa on several occasions in the past, I knew it was going to be an absolute blast, and given the play's period setting, who better to shoot it than the guy with period-accurate lenses?
Visitors From Dreams was initially tasked with capturing media for the production's marketing campaign. This involved photographing portraits of the core creative team, documenting behind-the-scenes moments, and, of course, photographing the performances of the two lead actors, Stuart Lumsden and Jonathon McAteer.
The project also eventually expanded into helping complete the sound design for the play, a process I thoroughly enjoyed.
This was my first time working closely with actors as well. I normally consider myself more of a documentarian than a portrait photographer, usually preferring to interact with people as little as possible while I photograph them—more like a fly on the wall. On this occasion, though, I'm really glad I took the time to get to know the team, and I think it led to some of my best work this year.
I just want to thank everyone involved. It was an amazing experience from beginning to end, and a huge learning experience as well. You don't need to know much about theatre to realise it's an enormous amount of work, but once you see everything happening behind the scenes, it becomes clear very quickly that however much work you think it is, it's always substantially more.
I don't know what's next from here, but I'm eager to work with Lisa and the team again sometime in the future... once everyone has recovered, myself included.
Client Name
Empty Space Productions
Date
April/July 2026
Category
Photography/Video
28/04/26
30/05/26
04/07/26
24/07/26
