Down To A Sunless Sea — audio adaptation of a short story written by Neil Gaiman | TBK Initiative Group
Christina Cie for The Woman
All positions are listed as volunteer roles.
On a backdrop of a rainy, 17-18th century London, you'll play the role of a middle-aged British woman. Regularly, grieving her lost son, who died at sea many years ago, she visits the River Thames, retelling the story of how he perished to the unsuspecting, credulous commoners near a cargo dock.
Though mostly calm, the woman has moments of vulnerability: We're looking for someone who can convey the emotional burnout associated with losing your child to — what you believe — is unjust.
In your audition, only provide the voiceover and do not use heavy editing.
[composed; frail; unthreatening]
"My son wanted to be a sailor.
[gradually gets emotionally carried away]
"And what would I do in a fancy house? I told him. You're a fool with your fine talk. I told him of his father, who never came back from the sea – some said he was dead and lost overboard, while some swore blind they'd seen him running a whore-house in Amsterdam.
[slightly annoyed, yet calm]
"It's all the same. The sea took him.
[after a pause, passionate]
I told him not to go to sea. I'm your mother, I said. The sea won't love you like I love you, she's cruel. But he said, Oh Mother, I need to see the world. I need to see the sun rise in the tropics, and watch the Northern Lights dance in the Arctic sky, and most of all I need to make my fortune and then, when it's made I will come back to you, and build you a house, and you will have servants, and we will dance, mother, oh how we will dance…
