‘Collaborators’
by John Hodge.
Playing Dates: 6, 7, 10-14th April 2018. plus a matinee on 8th April.
Auditions: Stables Theatre, Sunday 5th November 2017, 3pm.
Director: Maureen Nelson
Set in Moscow in 1938, this gripping, blackly comic, but immensely disturbing play opens with a nightmarish, surreal sequence in which the writer Mikhail Bulgakov is pursued round his own apartment by Joseph Stalin, who emerges from a cupboard and then threatens to smash him over the head with a typewriter. As he battles with the kidney disease that will finally kill him and struggles, reluctantly, to write a play the dictator has commissioned about his early life, he finds himself in an unexpected role reversal relationship with the all powerful subject of the drama – or is it all in his anguished mind? And – will he ever be permitted to stage his play about Moliere?
Bulgakov and Stalin are dream parts for two experienced actors. Although they are the main protagonists in this blistering play, it is also a real ensemble piece requiring energy, commitment and lots of imagination, with some wonderful character parts and a cast of up to 16 actors playing a variety of roles. We plan to have a flexible set, with no fixed locations to ‘play’ on. It is a tough piece of theatre to tackle but I believe it will be very rewarding and we will have a lot of fun.
Please read the whole play before the audition and have an idea of the situation in Moscow at the time. I shall be looking for actors who are flexible committed and available. I am not looking for ‘accents’.
Once cast, I intend to have a get together and familiarisation meeting in November or December. We will start rehearsals in January – probably three a week to begin with.
YOU ARE CORDIALLY INVITED TO COME ALONG TO THE BAR FOR A READING OF ‘COLLABORATORS’ AT 7.30 PM ON WEDNESDAY 1ST NOVEMBER.
Characters:
MIKHAIL BULGAKOV: A WRITER AGED 47
YELENA: HIS WIFE AGED 30-SOMETHING, INTELLIGENT
JOSEPH STALIN: A DICTATOR AGED 59
VASILLY: EX ARISTOCRAT, 60 ISH – RESIDENT IN MIKHAIL’S FLAT
PRASKOVYA: A TEACHER (FEMALE) – RESIDENT IN MIKHAIL’S FLAT
SERGEI: A YOUNG STUDENT (MALE OR FEMALE) – RESIDENT IN MIKHAIL’S FLAT ingenuous, devoted to the regime
GRIGORY : A YOUNG WRITER, 20’S-30’S (MALE) enthusiastic, principled
ANNA: AN ACTRESS, 20’S -30’S
VLADIMIR : AN NKVD OFFICER (3O’S UPWARDS) talkative, smooth, lethal
STEPAN: AN NKVD OFFICER (30’S UPWARDS) taciturn, a man of few words but a distinct presence
DOCTOR: MIDDLE AGED (MALE)
ACTOR 1: MALE
ACTOR 2: MALE OR FEMALE
EVA: VLADIMIR’S WIFE – SIMILAR AGE
MAN, WOMAN, NURSE, 2 NKVD MEN, MEN, DRIVER,CLEANER, NIGHTMARE DOCTORS AND APOTHECARIES, ACTORS PLAYING MOLIERE, LAGRANGE ETC IN BULGAKOV’S PLAY ‘MOLIERE’
I envisage having a team of between 4 and 6 who will cover doctor, 2 actors, Eva and other smaller parts.
Look particularly at pages:
4-9, 10-12, 17-22, 36-39, 45-46,
54-56, 92-93, 98-99, 104-106
Please give me a ring on 01424204740 if you have any queries
Maureen Nelson
Director
