AUDITIONS

***Please note this is an unpaid community theatre production***
We will be holding auditions for our Autumn 2025 show:

Travesties by Tom Stoppard

11th (Sunday) and 12th May (Monday) 2025 at 7.15 pm.

Venue: Bath Rec Pavilion - this is the green wooden building, just off William Street/Pulteney Mews.

what3words link: https://w3w.co/score.remark.pretty

You will not be able to park at the Rec without a permit. Please allow time to park as on-street parking is often limited.

Show Week:

8th (Wednesday) to 11th (Saturday) October 2025 at The Rondo Theatre

Rehearsal days and times TBC - usually twice a week.

Synopsis:

In 1974, Henry Carr looks back at his time in Zurich during the First World War, when he was the British Consul after being invalided out of the trenches and also put in a triumphant performance as Ernest - no, not Ernest, the other one - in a production of The Importance of Being Earnest organised by James Joyce, and all while hanging out with Tristan Tzara, one of the founders of the Dada art movement, and spying on Lenin’s efforts to escape exile in Switzerland and return to Russia. But how much of this really happened and how much is the product of Carr's unreliable memory?

Tom Stoppard's Travesties is an epic intellectual comedy that defies summary in a few sentences, but in short it's very clever and very funny and every scene is in a different style (with a lot of reference to The Importance of Being Earnest), and we need eight brilliant and versatile actors to bring it to life.

To register for an audition slot, or if you have any questions, email Jim, the director, at jim.mccauley@btinternet.com.

The Cast:

There are no small parts in this show. Carr is the the largest part, followed by Tzara, and the rest of the cast are all medium size, each with their fair share of stage time. There is some intimacy in the show, including kissing, between Carr and Cecily, and Tzara and Gwendolen. There will also be some singing and dancing. Oh, and every character has a parallel in The Importance of Being Earnest.

Henry Carr
M, 30+/80
Earnest parallel: Algernon Moncrief
Henry Carr appears both as his older 80-something self, the shabby and very unreliable narrator of the play, and as his youthful self: conservative and opinionated in the classic manner of an Englishman abroad, but also elegant and not a little romantic. The actor playing Carr will need to be able to switch between old and young versions instantly, with only minor costume adjustment; most of the transformation will be in his voice and posture.
This is a huge, challenging and rewarding role: Carr’s first monologue is six pages long, and he’s on stage for most of the play.

Tristan Tzara
M, 20+
Earnest parallel: Jack Worthing
Tristan Tzara (pronounced Zara) is a young, well-spoken Romanian and co-founder of the Dada anti-art movement. Charming and elegant, he wears a monocle and scorns bourgeois literature and art; he instead believes art can be created by chance. Cynical and often flippant but passionate at heart.

James Joyce
M/F, 40+
Earnest parallel: Lady Bracknell
James Joyce is an intellectual heavyweight from Dublin, who’s writing Ulysses at the Zurich Central Library as well as staging a production of The Importance of Being Earnest. Haughty, prudish and constantly hard up, he has an incisive mind and an occasionally performative nature, but he’s a martyr to ill health. Performs at least one magic trick during the show.
Because of Joyce’s parallels with Lady Bracknell, we’d encourage women to audition for the part.

Gwendolen Carr
F, 20+
Earnest parallel: Gwendolen Fairfax
Gwendolen is Henry’s younger sister, but she’s also Gwendolen from The Importance of Being Earnest; she’s assisting Joyce with his work on Ulysses, believes him to be a genius, and could not possibly love a man who doesn’t consider Joyce to be a genius. Loves poetry, knows Shakespeare’s 18th sonnet by heart, isn’t quite as sweet and innocent as she might seem, and is a force to be reckoned with.

Cecily Carruthers
F, 20+/80
Earnest parallel: Cecily Cardew
Cecily is, of course, Cecily from The Importance of Being Earnest; she is also a librarian in the reference section of Zurich Central Library, where she is helping Lenin with his book on imperialism. Even more of a force to be reckoned with than Gwendolen, she’s a Marxist-Leninist who couldn’t possibly love a man who isn’t a decadent nihilist in need of reform.
Cecily briefly appears as her elderly self at the end of the play; as with Carr this needs to be brought across through voice and posture and just a little costume adjustment.

Lenin
M, 40+
Earnest parallel: Dr. Chasuble
Lenin is the well-known Russian revolutionary, currently in exile in Zurich but desperate to return to his homeland. Described by Carr as ‘a complex personality, enigmatic, magnetic’, he’s dedicated to the revolutionary cause.
Lenin is the only character in this production who really needs to be played by an actor who bears some resemblance to him, as he’s so recognisable. He has a number of lines in Russian, and when he speaks in English it should be with at least a hint of a Russian accent.

Nadya
F, 40+
Earnest parallel: Miss Prism
Nadya is Lenin’s wife; like him a committed revolutionary who was at one point leader of the Bolshevik party. Devoted to her husband and a chronicler of his life.
As with Lenin, has a number of lines in Russian and should speak accented English.

Bennett
M, 40+
Earnest parallel: Lane, Merriman
Bennett is Carr’s manservant: solid, expressionless and unflappable but with a penchant for dry, ironic observations. Has been helping himself to Carr’s champagne and, it turns out, has radical tendencies.