by Oscar Wilde
Directed by Richard Jaques
Tuesday 18 – Saturday 22 March
The Lion & Unicorn Theatre
1. Auditions
Date: 14th, 15th & 16th January. Please come on whichever day suits you Time: 6.30pm (we will start promptly!)
Venue: Clean Break Studios, 2 Patshull Road, Kentish Town, NW5 2LB. The nearest tube is Kentish Town
Recalls will be on Saturday 18th January from 10.30am to 2.30pm. You will be called on Friday 17th if we’d like to see you again.
2. Show Dates
We’ll be performing from Tuesday 18th to Saturday 22nd March at The Lion & Unicorn Theatre in Kentish Town. The shows will start at 7.30pm and you’ll need to be at the theatre at least an hour beforehand. The dress rehearsal will be on Monday 17th March. You will need to be free from midday onwards, possibly all day.
3. Rehearsals
Rehearsals will be on Monday and Wednesday evenings and Sunday afternoons/ evenings. All rehearsals will be in central London.
You will not be required to prepare anything for the audition at all. There will be some script work and readings, so the best thing to do is just be yourselves on top form.
4. Synopsis
The basic premise of ‘An Ideal Husband’ is this: Lord Goring is a London wastrel, whose closest friend is a young and well-regarded politician. Not only that, but he is considered to be an ideal husband and humanitarian as well.
When an outside and unwelcome character comes into his life however, Robert Chiltern, the politician in question, finds some dark secrets of his earlier days at risk of being exposed.
As the events unfold around Goring, he finds himself called to help, as well as to consider what makes a person truly ideal.
This production will be a modernisation of ‘An Ideal Husband’, resetting it in contemporary Russian high society – long coats and fur hats as well as pushing the subtext of autobiographic account of Oscar Wilde though Lord Goring.
This dazzling blend of farce and morality revolves around the lives of two men: a successful political figure and his philandering friend. One has a secret scandal in his past.
Although ‘An Ideal Husband’ is full of all the witticisms you’d hope for from Oscar Wilde, the subject matter is more serious than you might expect.
Penned at a time when Oscar Wilde was having an illegal relationship makes it poignant that, acceptance and forgiveness, are at the heart of the play.
5. Cast Breakdown
Sir Robert Chiltern (M 30s)
Best friends with Viscount Goring, less wealthy, but educated with Viscount Goring and knows that Viscount Goring is gay. Sir Robert is the play’s “tragic” hero, a government official who owes his success and fortune to secret scandal. Love has driven him to hide his past in the desperate hope of remaining the ideal husband to his wife. Conscious of what his success has cost him; Sir Robert suffers from a decidedly nervous and harried temperament.
Lady Gertrude Chiltern (F 20s)
Naive but dominate over her husband. Lady Chiltern embodies the Victorian new woman: upright, virtuous, educated, politically engaged, and active in her husband’s career. She is the play’s sentimental heroine, a sort of moral absolutist who worships her ideal husband and cannot brook the revelation of his secret past.
Mrs. Cheveley (F 20s – 30s)
One of the play’s wittiest and most well dressed characters, Mrs Cheveley is the vicious and opportunistic villainess, who values wealth and power above all. Mrs Cheveley is the “unnatural” union of daytime genius and night-time beauty.
Lord Goring (M 30s)
Based on Oscar Wilde, the Earl’s son, oppressed by the Earl. Of impeccable dress and inimitable wit, Lord Goring is the play’s thirty-something dandified philosopher, an idle aristocrat who serves as a thinly veiled double for Wilde himself. Irreverent, wry, and dangerously clever, Goring “plays with the world” and in doing so rejects ideals of duty, respectability, and responsibility. Lord Goring is the central character around whom all the action happens.
Mabel Chiltern (F 18s – 25s)
An exemplar of English prettiness, Mabel, Sir Robert’s younger sister, embodies what Wilde describes as the “fascinating tyranny of youth” and “astonishing courage of innocence.” Pert and clever, Mabel flirtatiously matches Lord Goring’s wit throughout the play.
Lord Caversham (M 50s – 60s)
Based on Vladimir Putin for this production, a large fella. A symbol of oppression. Father to Lord Goring, Lord Caversham, is a stuffy, serious, and respectable gentleman who is firmly opposed to the excesses of his dandified son. Continually he urges his son to marry and adopt a career, posing Sir Robert as model.
Lady Markby (F 40 – 60)
A pleasant and popular woman with “gray hair à la marquise and good lace,” Lady Markby is emblematic of an older generation of Society women, bemoaning the effect of politics and the higher education of women on married life.
Lady Basildon and Mrs. Marchmont (F 30s-40s)
They smaller roles who frivolously banter on a number of topics throughout Act I; notable ones include the dreariness of politics, being serious, education, and so on. They are perhaps more decorative than anything else, though—as the insightfulness of their conversations suggests—one can never underestimate the decorative on Wilde’s stage.
Phipps (M any age)
A “mask with a manner” who serves Lord Goring. Phipps is the ideal butler. Absolutely impassive, he reveals nothing of his intellect or emotions and “represents the dominance of form.” Phipps will also step in for other “servant” moments.