Down To A Sunless Sea — audio adaptation of a short story written by Neil Gaiman | TBK Initiative Group
melissawong for Narrator
All positions are listed as volunteer roles.
As the narrator, you'll voice the majority of the story, directly addressing the listener. We're looking for a calm, deliberate and well-delivered retelling that keeps us interested without being overwhelming. Please, provide examples of a more relaxed pace, followed by a more upbeat one — try several variations and styles of reading!
It would make the most sense to have an English accent since the story is set in London, however, we recognise the diversity of our worldwide audience — so we'll consider all accents equally. We're simply asking you to try your best!
In your audition, only provide narration audio and do not use heavy editing.
The Thames is a filthy beast: it winds through London like a snake, or a sea serpent. All the rivers flow into it, the Fleet and the Tyburn and the Neckinger, carrying all the filth and scum and waste, the bodies of cats and dogs and the bones of sheep and pigs down into the brown water of the Thames, which carries them east into the estuary and from there into the North Sea and oblivion.
It is raining in London.
The rain washes the dirt into the gutters, and it swells streams into rivers, rivers into powerful things. The rain is a noisy thing, splashing and pattering and rattling the rooftops. If it is clean water as it falls from the skies it only needs to touch London to become dirt, to stir dust and make it mud.
Nobody drinks it, neither the rain water nor the river water. They make jokes about Thames water killing you instantly, and it is not true. There are mudlarks who will dive deep for thrown pennies then come up again, spout the river water, shiver and hold up their coins. They do not die, of course, or not of that, although there are no mudlarks over fifteen years of age.
The rain is easing, and you think she is done, but now, for the first time, she looks at you, and appears to be about to say something. She has pulled something from around her neck, and now she is reaching it out to you.
