All for One; One for All! 

Illyria at Montgomery Castle

Wow, this was a hard act to follow – not in the literally sense but – photographically.
I’ve been honoured to have been asked by Mike Mills to photograph the Play At The Castle over the past 11 years (where did that time go!) and each year, as a photographer, some of the scenes can be predicted as to where the actors will be and how the play progresses throughout the evening making compositions a little easier for a live show.

But this one – The Three Musketeers, performed by Illyria - from the get go, it required firm feet on the ground, arms close to chest and an eye scanning every frame setup to try and capture what seemed to me to be constant action scenes!

Don’t ask me what the plot of this play was about, I’ve no idea, all I can say is, the acting was superb, the comedy, excellent, and the action and sword play, perfectly realistic – no time to keep track of the story, just time enough to keep wits about me to keep track of the actors!

Well done to the cast and crew (I guess all the same people) they must have put some hours into their sword fight training to pull off those excellent fights and sparring.

Then, just when you think you’ve learnt all you can from the scene arrangements and perfect choreographed sword fights so you can compose your shot – someone does a backward summersault leap from one stage to the next!  

To find out more about The Three Musketeers and Illyria, head over to their website here: Illyria Website