Audition Notice
The Recruiting Officer
Production:
The Recruiting Officer
by:
George Farquhar
Audition Date:
Sunday 14th March 2010
Audition Time:
7.30pm
Audition Venue:
St Margaret's Church Hall, Victoria Avenue N3 1BD
Performance Venue:
Little Wood, Hampstead Garden Suburb
Performance Dates:
Friday 9th July (7.30pm); Saturday 10th July (3pm & 7.30pm); Wednesday 14th July, Thursday 15th July and Friday 16th July (all at 7.30pm); Saturday 17th July (3pm & 7.30pm)
Directed by:
John Colmans
About the play:
Those of you who saw or were involved in “Our Country’s Good” will already have some familiarity with Farquhar’s comedy, as this is the play the convicts decide to put on and perform for the community in Sydney.
Farquhar’s play, set in Shrewsbury in the early years of the eighteenth century, is at the very end of the period we know as Restoration comedy and tells of the attempts of Captain Plume and his resourceful assistant Sergeant Kite to drum up recruits for the War of the Spanish Succession (think Marlborough). The Captain, however, is equally involved in his attempts to gain the hand of Silvia, daughter of local magistrate Justice Balance and the attempts of his friend, Mr Worthy, to secure the hand of Silvia’s cousin Melinda, who is also being pursued by the inimitable Captain Brazen. Matters are complicated by Captain Plume’s inability to resist a pretty face and made even more confusing when Silvia, to test him out, disguises herself as Jack Wilful and attempts to become a recruit herself. Add in general bawdiness, drunkenness, some highly dubious fortune-telling and some slightly challenged country folk and you have all the ingredients of a very entertaining comedy.
Can't make it?
If you would like to audition but cannot make the above date, please contact us (details below). Please note that you do not have to join the GST to audition but everyone in a GST show is required to be a member.
The characters
Captain Plume
Dashing, witty Captain of Grenadiers
Captain Brazen
His fellow recruiting officer
Sergeant Kite
Plume’s resourceful sergeant
Mr Worthy
Plume’s friend
Justice Balance
Local magistrate – Silvia’s father
Bullock
Rose’s brother
Silvia (Jack Wilful)
Balance’s daughter
Melinda
Silvia’s cousin – an heiress
Rose
A country wench
Lucy
Melinda’s scheming maid
Pearmain
A rustic
Appletree
A rustic
Butcher
Collier
Collier’s wife
Scale
A magistrate
Scruple
A magistrate
Constable
Various servants and a mob (a small one)
Some of the smaller parts will need to be doubled up. Please note that the original script has been cut – I will email full versions of the revised script to all those cast in due course. Rehearsals will start at the end of April: they will be on Sunday afternoons and two weekday evenings each week.