Dates & FAQs
Information Evening: Sunday 5th February 2pm
Read through: Thursday 9th March 7:45pm
Auditions: Thursday 16th March 7:45pm
Performances: Wednesday 12th – Saturday 15th July
Synopsis
The Setting: Sidley Park, Derbyshire
The Time: April 1809 & Early Summer 1992
In 1809, Thomasina Coverly, the daughter of the house, is a precocious teenager with ideas about mathematics, nature, and physics well ahead of her time. She studies with her tutor Septimus Hodge, a friend of Lord Byron (an unseen guest in the house). In the present, writer Hannah Jarvis and literature professor Bernard Nightingale converge on the house: she is investigating a hermit who once lived on the grounds; he is researching a mysterious chapter in the life of Byron. As their studies unfold – with the help of Valentine Coverly, a post-graduate student in mathematical biology – the truth about what happened in Thomasina’s time is gradually revealed.
Cast
1809
Thomasina Coverly – playing age 13 (should be over 16)
Thomasina Coverly – playing age 13 (should be over 16)
Septimus Hodge – her tutor, 22
Jellaby – butler, middle aged
Ezra Chater – a poet, 31
Richard Noakes – landscape architect, middle aged
Lady Croom – mid 30s
Captain Brice – her brother, mid 30s
Gus Coverly – playing age 15 (to be played by the same actor as Gus Coverly)
1992
Hannah Jarvis – author, late 30s
Chloe Coverly – aged 18
Bernard Nightingale – a don, late 30s
Valentine Coverly – late 20s
Gus Coverly – playing age 15 (to be played by the same actor as Augustus Coverly)
There is one other character who acts as the bridge between the two periods, Lord Byron, who is an unseen guest during the 1809 scenes, and is the subject of Bernard Nightingale’s later research.
Arcadia Audition Pieces
Septimus & Thomasina: Act 1 Sc 1 – top of p2 to bottom of p4
Septimus & Chater: Act 1 Sc 1 – middle of p7 (Mr Chater perhaps…) to top of p10
Chater, Brice, Lady Croom & Septimus: Act 1 Sc 3 – top of p50 to end of scene
Jellaby (& Septimus): Act 2 Sc2 – top of p84 to middle of p86
Noakes (& Lady Croome, Thomasina & Septimus): Act 2 Sc 3 – top of p108 to top of p110
Augustus (& Septimus): Act 2 Sc 3 – middle of p111 to bottom of p112
Chloe, Bernard and Valentine: Act 1 Sc2 – start of p20 to middle of p23
Hannah & Bernard: Act 1 Sc2 – middle of p26 to top of p29
Bernard, Chloe, Valentine & Hannah: Act 2 Sc1 – middle of p69 to bottom of p71
Hannah, Bernard, Valentine: Act 2 Sc1 – top of p75 to middle of p77
Contact
Please contact Roy Drinkwater – 07947 909673/01227 792116 or Becs – becslindleys@gmail.com for more information, or just turn up at the readthrough.