danieldwilliam | On Auditioning

I have auditioned for a role in a one-act play.

The play is the Rose and Crown, a JB Priestley short set in post-war 1940's London (although any large British city would do). It's set in a pub, where a bunch of depressed post-war Britons gather for a drink and to complain about their lot in life. Like other JB Priestley plays there is a touch of magical realism and metaphysics.

The play is probably the first bespoke piece of drama writen for British television. This rather shows in the structure of the play. Each of the seven or eight characters enters one after another, the play is set around a bar and you can just see the single, static, heavy camera being used as Point of View of the barman as he slilently serves the speaking characters their beer.

I think the play is going to be difficult to pull off. It's a play about depressing people being depressed in each other's company and then suffering a reverse. It's also naturally quite static. Largely people sitting round a bar. So to work the banter between the characters needs to be funny, both to amuse and to build sympathy for and empathy with the characters.Otherwise it's a brown play about brown people.

The play will appear in the Scottish Community Drama Association One Act Play Festival and Competition in February. If I'm appearing in it I shall let people know.