Auditions – Two one-act plays directed by Moyra Brookes

The Nomads will be presenting My Second Best Bed and Two Sisters in the studio, directed by Moyra Brookes.

  • Performance dates: 16-20 June 2020 at 7.45pm
  • Rehearsal days: TBC
Auditions will be held in the Bob King Room at 7.30 pm on:
  • Thursday 5th March
  • Monday 9th March

You can audition for just one play or both. If you would like further information, or cannot make these audition dates, please email [email protected] or call 07771757625.

My Second Best Bed : Barry Syder

May 1616; 3 weeks after Shakespeare’s death. A room in New place Stratford upon Avon, home of William Shakespeare and family. Very simple set: table bench and chair. Silver bowl with apples

The Curate has come to read the will! Why did Shakespeare leave his wife his second-best bed?

Cast and roles

  • Susanna Hall: 34-44 Shakespeare’s eldest daughter, middle-aged housewife
  • Curate: 25-35 self-righteous church official, clerical mind with modern outlook (think Mr Collins in P&P and star-struck on celebs)
  • Judith 32-42 youngest daughter, bad-tempered she runs the local tavern with her husband
  • Anne Hathaway: 60 + early onset of Dementia (very small part)

Two Sisters: Caroline Harding

Dark secrets hidden in the grey mists of time are reluctantly revealed in this excellent black comedy. Set in a small village in 1880’s Russia, Anya and Sonia are goaded into recollecting some things they’d rather forget from their earlier years, upon the bizarre discovery of an empty coffin in Anya’s lodgings.

Anya and Sonia, now in their forties, have an easy-going relationship with one another. They seem to love each other as sisters should, and are each able to make jokes and poke fun at the other’s expense.This is surprising as twenty-five years before, they both fell in love with the same man, Anya much more so than Sonia, but it was the older Sonia who married him and bore his child. On his untimely death soon afterwards, Anya was so distraught that she tried to end her life, and the pregnant Sonia, was quickly forced to marry again, in order to support her and her new baby.

The coffin acts as a catalyst to Anya as she recounts how, before he died, she tried to protect Sonia from discovering the truth about André .Sonia for her part, then informs Anya that she was well aware of his indiscretions,. Each is amazed at their ability to keep these secrets from each other for nearly a quarter of a century – during which time both have led less than happy lives. Can they remain friends with the memories of Andre returning to haunt them?

And the coffin?………….

Cast and roles 

  • Anya – early 40s, ‘free with her favours’ to many men, has a limp, drinks a lot
  • Sonia – mid-40s, stuck in a loveless marriage