An invitation to audition for a rehearsed reading of an exciting new play, to be performed at

The Stables on Saturday December 9th

Auditions will be held on

Sunday 15th October, between 10am and 3pm

The Christmas week of 1950.

Three people cross paths at a down-at-heel theatre in Camden Town.  Audrey and Gavin are performing there in a second-rate Murder Mystery.  Ray, a bookies’ runner, has come to collect bets from the stage-door keeper.

On stage is a world of bronzed tennis players and women who say clever things in sequined gowns.  But off stage, it’s back to reality; bombsites, freezing fog and endless queues for whatever food their ration books allow.

Audrey, Gavin and Ray are waiting for their lives (and the country itself) to transform after the trauma of World War Two.  Perhaps they see the key for such transformation in each other.  But who can be trusted?  How do they achieve their desires without risking too much of themselves?

The days ahead will see love grow, secrets revealed and violence erupt.

When Christmas is over, who will be able to move forward from the wreckage?

SNAP DRAGON is a thrilling new play which recreates the world of 1950, austerity Britain.  Many of the struggles we faced as a society, are still recognisable today, suggesting that, in some sense, the twenty-first century was born out of these post-war years.

CHARACTERS

AUDREY Late 30s/40s.  Actress.  Her accent is clipped and precise, her appearance, glamorous, her energy bold and theatrical.  Think, Margaret Lockwood, Googie Withers.  Pre-war she was beginning to get a foothold in British film, securing a few minor roles.  But now, she fears that her career is behind her.  Staying at digs in Camden Town.

GAVIN Mid 20s.  An ambitious young actor.  Good looking, in a matinee idol way – think young Ivor Novello, Dirk Bogarde.  An ability to charm.  He grew up in a modest household in Ipswich.  He senses the imminent shift in post-war drama towards increased realism in scripts and acting style, and is keen to be a part of it.  Staying at the same digs as Audrey.

RAY 30s.  Living a hand-to-mouth existence as a bookie’s runner and occasional prostitute.  Vulnerable.  Nearly broken, physically and emotionally.  He grew up in an East London slum.  He joined the army just before war broke out.  He was injured, losing a foot, in an attack on his unit during their retreat to Dunkirk.  He squats at a bomb-damaged house in Southwark.

MIRIAM 20s to 40s.  Stage manager.  Kind, capable, no-nonsense approach to her work and her life.  Driven to keep alive the post-war idealism in culture and society.  Lives with her partner, June, in in Kentish Town.

ARTHUR 40s/50s.  Stage door keeper.  A kindly, avuncular man on the surface, but there is hidden anger.  He is a veteran of the North African campaign, where he lost an arm.  He lives alone in North London.

Rehearsals will be arranged in October and November for a performance on December the 9th

For an audition slot, and for further information, please email Tim at: tgbblackwell@gmail.com