Auditions Information

(suggested age: 50's)

Annie will join in mischief but is at heart more conformist and less confrontational than Chris.  After Chris has put a waiter's back up in the restaurant  Annie will go in and pour calm. The mischievousness Chris elicits saves Annie from being a saint.  She has enough edge to be interesting, and enough salt not to be too sweet. 

(suggested age: 50's)

You want Chris at your party.  She will talk to people she doesn't know, find things to say to fill silences and generate laughter.  Part of this is because Chris is at home in crowds, holding court, being the centre of attention.  Without Chris in her life, Annie would be better behaved, her life less fun. The two of them are like naughty schoolgirls.

(suggested age: late 30s, early 40s)

Cora went to college and soon came back pregnant and tail-between-legs.  She has too much native resilience to be downtrodden.  The joker in the pack, she never plays the fool. Her wit is deadpan.  It raises laughter in others, but rarely in herself....her relationship with her son is more akin to that between Chris and Annie.

(suggested age: 50s)

The fact that Celia is in the WI is the greatest justification of its existence.  She always feels like she's drifted in from another world. Which she has.  Ex air hostess and life-liver, there is a rebelliousness in Celia which sets her apart from the vapid materialism of her husband's golfing peer group and made her defect.

(suggested age: 70's)

Get on the right side of Jessie as a teacher and she'll be the teacher you remember for life.  Get on the wrong side and you will regret every waking hour. A  lover of life, Jessie doesn't bother with cosmetics - her elixir of life is bravery. Je ssie goes on rollercoasters. Her  husband has been with her a long time and is rarely surprised by her actions.  Jessie bothers about grammar and will correct stallholders regarding their abuse of the apostrophe 's'.

(suggested age: 40s/50s)

Ruth's journey is from the false self-confidence of the emotionally abused to the genuine self-confidence of the woman happy in her own skin.  Ruth is eager to please but not a rag doll, and despite being Marie's right-hand woman she is desperate to be the cartilage in the spine  of the WI and keep everyone happy.  The others feel protective of Ruth because they sense there is something better in Ruth than her life is letting out.

(suggested age: late 40s / early 50s)

Marie has gradually built the current 'Marie' around herself over the years as a defence mechanism.  She went to her Oz - Cheshire - and found Oz didn't want her. She came back scorched.  The WI is a trophy to her, which justifies her entire existence.  There is a lingering part of Marie with the 'Marie' that would love to be on that calendar.

(suggested age: late 20's, early 30s)

Hesitant without being nerdy, Lawrence is a shy young man with enough wit to make a joke and enough spirit to turn up at the WI hall in the first place.  When he arranges the shots he is close to female nudity but sees only the photo.

(suggested age: 50s)

John is a human sunflower. Not a saint. Not a hero. Just the kind of man you'd want in your car when crossing America.  When he dies it feels like someone somewhere turned a light off.

(suggested age: 50s)

You have to be a certain kind of guy to stick with Chris and Rod loves it.  He can give back what he gets and has a deadpan humour which has always made Chris laugh.  He drinks a lot but never so much as to have a problem.  He would work every hour to make his shop a success.   And John was his mate, even though the relationship was originally channelled through their wives.