BUXTON DRAMA LEAGUE
AUDITIONS
Everyone is welcome to audition for Buxton Drama League productions. Whether you've spent a lot of time treading the boards or if you've never stepped foot on a stage, we want to see your audition! If you have any questions about our audition process or are interested in a production role, please don't hesitate to get in touch
A Doll's House Auditions
Friday 27 February 7pm, Wednesday 4 March 7pm, United Reformed Church
We’re holding auditions for our next production, Henrik Ibsen’s trailblazing social drama. There will also be a read through on Thursday 19 February at 7pm at the Buxton Pump Room.
Audition pieces
If you can, please prepare one of the audition pieces from the below for whichever character you’re interested in playing. If you’re interested in the role of Nora, please prepare two pieces, as it would be good to hear you alongside other characters. Likewise, those auditioning for Christine should prepare scenes alongside Nora and Krogstad.
We look forward to seeing you at the read through and the auditions!
A Doll’s House will run at the Pavilion Arts Centre from 11 to 13 June and tickets are on sale now.
Poster artwork by Elle Hibbert
Director David Frederickson writes: ‘Ibsen’s masterpiece was, he insisted, about human rights in general, but today most of us would, I think, identify the problems Nora faces and the way she deals with them as typical of the position of women in a man’s world – it is seen as a feminist play and I am comfortable with that. Even if you set the play somewhere in the modern era, as I am doing, Nora’s story, a few factual details apart, seems only too familiar today. Many women face patronising, belittling and controlling behaviour from men and sometimes much worse. ‘Torvald Helmer assumes the power in the marriage and treats his wife like a child, but ultimately fails to deliver the care that goes with that sort of bargain. Nora adopts her own stratagems to deal with her situation, but ultimately realises she has been let down by the men who control her life – her father and husband. As the play begins she is dealing with the consequences of a life crisis. She has had to borrow money to treat her husband’s serious ill-health. He recovered completely because of her efforts and she feels her motives were correct but is ultimately condemned for it. Her final response to her predicament is the reason why the play landed like a bombshell in European theatre in the 1880s. ‘Nora walks out on her marriage and her young family. One German actress refused to play the role of Nora precisely because she was outraged by this denouement, and in England the play had to be given a happy ending before it could get a licence. To see the real thing you had to go to a private production in which Eleanor Marx and George Bernard Shaw played Nora and Torvald. So A Doll’s House was shocking then and, I think, still speaks powerfully to this day, given the poisonous social media posts of men like Andrew Tate, which attempt to warp the attitudes of young men to the treatment of women, and the incidents of appalling misogyny get daily in the news. ‘The play has a real significance for me because it was when I played Torvald in an amateur production at Sheffield University Drama Studio in 1983 that I realised that I might have what it takes to become a professional actor, though it was a few more years before I plucked up the courage to apply to the Bristol Old Vic Theatre School in Bristol where I went to train in 1989. ‘The characters we have to cast are as follows:
Nora Helmer (Playing Age: 30s)
A large role needing experience. She is on stage most of the time. Wife to Torvald for about eight years. Two children. Manages her husband’s male ego by, what would then have been called, ‘women’s wiles’. Apparently a happy-go-lucky personality, but she is hiding a huge, nagging secret. She feels Torvald’s well-being justifies her actions and she does not see the consequences of discovery. Her sudden self-discovery at the end of the play is devastating.
Torvald Helmer (Playing Age: 30s)
Confident middle-class professional man with typical male pride. A lawyer who has just been made the Manager of the local Savings Bank, so he will earn much more money and secure his family’s future. Worships his wife but treats her (patronisingly) as naïve, fragile and child-like. Frightened to death of moral failure and society’s censure.
Christine Linde (Playing Age: 30s)
Old school friend of Nora. She is widowed and visits Nora, after a gap of some years, looking for employment and a new life. She was once in a relationship with Krogstad. Harsh experience has made her a very down-to-earth sort of woman.
Nils Krogstad (Playing Age: 30s – could be older?)
A lowly employee at Torvald's bank. He is a single father pushed to desperation because he committed fraud some years ago. He is a loan-broker on the side and when we meet him he seems a rather unpleasant scoundrel. Once the lover of Kristine Linde.
Dr Peter Rank (Playing Age: 40–60)
A close family friend who visits the Helmer household frequently. He is terminally ill. It is implied that his spinal degeneration is caused by inherited syphilis contracted from his father. Seems to be a father figure for Nora, who likes his company. He is in love with her.
Helen (Playing Age: 50–60)
I see her as a warm, maternal sort of woman. Nanny to the Helmer children and family servant. She has known Nora since she was a baby and was her nanny throughout childhood. In company she treats Nora formally, but there is an understanding between them. I think Helen knows what’s going on.
Click the buttons below to download the audition material: