A performer leans forward on a glowing platform amid green and purple light, with ensemble figures and haze filling the stage behind.

The Backstage Theatre, Mountview2025

Machinal

The Production

Mountview’s Summer Season 2025 Actor Musicianship cohort production of Sophie Treadwell’s expressionist play Machinal played The Backstage Theatre, featuring an original score and a fresh actor-musician approach to Treadwell’s exploration of society and human dignity.

45 photographs in the curated edit

Director: Denzel Westley-Sanderson
Musical Director: Daniel Jarvis
Movement Director: Tinovimbanashe Sibanda
Lighting Design: Alex Musgrave
Set & Costume Design: Damien Stanton
Sound Design: Phil Michael
Commissioned by: Mountview Academy of Theatre Arts
Photography: Steve Gregson

A wide blue-lit runway stage frames a lone seated performer on a central block, with glowing floor panels and empty audience seats on both sides.

A performer sings into a handheld microphone in close red and blue side light.

Several performers gather around and lean over a central block on the blue-lit stage while others sit or stand nearby.

A performer sits on a lit block beside a glowing table as seated onlookers watch through amber haze.

A performer sings into a microphone beside a vertical light strip in saturated red light.

An ensemble rushes and lunges across the runway stage in opposing blue and red light.

A performer in a vest gently touches another performer’s forehead in a close, red-lit moment.

A performer in a patterned dress looks tearful and still against a dark red background.

A performer lies face down on a central block as white confetti or petals fall through blue light.

Performers advance together down the blue-lit runway stage, surrounded by glowing strips and haze.

A performer sits hunched on a block while two musicians with string instruments stand behind in warm and blue light.

A wide symmetrical stage view shows performers arranged around a central figure under green and blue light bars.

A musician plays bass guitar beside a small glowing television, lit by red and green stage light.

Two seated performers lean close and hold hands in an intimate green-lit exchange.

A performer sings into a microphone while standing above prone figures in a red-lit stage scene.

A performer sings intensely into a microphone in tight red and blue light.

Two performers grapple or embrace in blue light, their bodies pressed together in a physical struggle.

A performer in a patterned dress stands foreground on the runway, with a seated figure far behind in a cool industrial stage space.

A performer stands centered at the front of the runway while the ensemble is spaced behind in red and blue light.

A drummer holds sticks at a drum kit against a red-splattered wall.

Two performers face each other and clasp hands under red light, with other figures blurred behind.

A long blue-lit stage tableau places a group around a bright central block, casting a large shadow across the floor.

An ensemble huddles tightly over glowing central blocks in stark blue-white light.

A seated performer on a lit platform faces a suited performer while the ensemble stands behind.

A cellist sits centered before a flag-draped block on a wide blue-white stage.

A cellist plays beside a flag-draped table, bow extended across the instrument in dark blue light.

A performer in a pale suit and glasses faces forward in cool blue light, with blurred figures standing behind.

A performer sits alone on a central block in a deep blue stage space, with other figures distant along the runway.

A performer in a dark suit shouts with one arm raised against a dark blue stage background.

Under warm amber light, a seated performer in sunglasses gestures at a low table while another performer stands nearby.

A red-lit ensemble scene captures several performers mid-motion, with a bright backlight cutting through haze.

A kneeling performer reaches toward a standing performer on a red-lit stage.

One performer crouches low on a glowing floor panel while another stands over the movement in cool stage light.

A very wide blue stage view shows a figure on the central block and other performers seated far upstage.

Two seated performers in pale shirts exchange a tense look under green and blue lighting.

A performer stands on a central block with arms open beneath green-blue light and overhead haze.

Two performers sit side by side in red light, one looking upward while the other faces outward.

One performer reclines while another leans over them in a close red-lit encounter.

A red-lit wide scene shows a live band at the back and performers crawling or reaching around glowing floor panels.

A performer in a black suit faces a seated performer while others sit behind them on the stage.

Three performers sit on a central block beneath an American flag in a red-lit stage composition.

A performer sings powerfully in the foreground as another uses a microphone behind, with the ensemble spread across the stage.

A cellist plays in a tighter vertical frame before the flag-draped table, head lifted into the spotlight.

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