AUDITIONS: The Iceman Cometh

Macquarie University Dramatic Society Presents: The Iceman Cometh

Written in 1939, Eugene O'Neill's The Iceman Cometh first appeared onstage in 1946, following O'Neill's twelve year absence from Broadway. Critics praised the play's passion, suspense, and well-drawn characters but complained about its prosaic language, redundancy, and excessive length—the play runs for almost four hours. In 1956, The Iceman Cometh was revived and this time, widely acclaimed as a masterpiece that would ensure for O'Neill a place among the greatest of modern dramatists. There have been numerous revivals of the play since.

The Iceman Cometh is noted for its dark realism; its setting and characters closely resemble real life. The world of the play is a cruel place. Despair is a constant presence, love only an illusion, and death something to which one looks forward. Relief comes in alcohol and pipe dreams—groundless hopes for a future that will never arrive. Some critics find hope in the characters' camaraderie and endurance. Others consider such a reading too optimistic, believing O'Neill's vision to be unremittingly dark. In spite of critical disagreement, however, the importance of The Iceman Cometh to twentieth-century theater is undisputed. It is truly a modern classic, considered by many to be the greatest play by one of America's greatest playwrights.

Basic Plot:

It's 1912 and the patrons of 'The Last Chance Saloon' have gathered for their evening of whiskey to contemplate their lost faith and dreams, when Hickey arrives. Hickey is out to convince everyone that he can help them all find peace of mind by ridding them of the foolish dreams and by bringing them back to reality. Hickey is working especially hard on Larry Slade a former anarchist who has lost his will for life and is awaiting the eventuality of death. Larry is not affected by the cajolings of Hickey but his young companion Parritt is strangely affected and this leads to revelations about his own mother and feelings of betrayal and loss. As the night wears on the mood changes as everyone has the their faith and dreams slowly destroyed by Hickey. As the anger builds everyone turns on Hickey about his wife and the iceman. This leads to more revelations and with Hickey having the faint questioning of his own new found convictions.

Characters:

Theodore Hickman  -  A salesman. Immediately likable, Hickey speaks like a salesman with an "easy flow of glib, persuasive convincingness." His shrewd eyes can take in anyone at a glance, thus his immediate intuition that he and Parritt have something in common. Hickey is the saloon's anxiously-awaited guest, his arrival promising free drinks and merriment. However, this time the group's "messiah," so to speak, comes bearing a different gospel of salvation, urging them to divest themselves of their pipe dreams and finally make peace with themselves. Hickey's murder of the tomorrow dreams will bring ruin the bar, thus Hickey is the "Iceman," or Death.

Larry Slade -  The play's "Foolosopher." Larry is a tall, raw-boned Irishman in his sixties who was once a Syndicalist-Anarchist. Having bitterly retired from the world, he presents himself as a man who has chosen to watch the carnage from the grandstand of philosophical detachment and eagerly awaits his death. O'Neill notes that Larry has a "mystic's meditative pale-blue eyes with a gleam of sharp sardonic humor in them" and his look of "tired tolerance" gives his face the quality of a weary priest.

Don Parritt  -  A gangly, awkward eighteen-year-old who has come to Larry upon a crackdown on the Anarchist movement made possible by his treason. Larry was once his Anarchist mother's lover. Wracked by guilt over his betrayal of his mother, he will beg for Larry's judgment throughout the play and progressively come to acknowledge the hate that underpinned his treason. In this sense, he serves as Hickey's double.

Harry Hope  -  The owner of the saloon. Harry is a "bag of bones" in his sixties with the face of an old, balky family horse. He wears spectacles so misaligned that at times one eye peers over one lens while another looks half under the other glass. Likable to all, he hides his vulnerability behind a "testy truculent manner" but fools no one. Hope has not ventured outside the bar in twenty years and his pipe dream is that he has remained inside out of respect for his dead wife Bess.

Rocky Pioggi - The night bartender. Rocky is a Neopolitan-American in his late twenties, squat and muscular with a swarthy face and beady eyes. He is tough, sentimental, and good-natured. His pipe dream involves his refusal to admit to himself that he is a pimp.

Hugo Kalmar - A former Anarchist editor who served ten years in prison for his activities. Hugo is a small, fastidiously clean man with an over-sized head, a "walrus mustache" and black eyes that peer from behind thick spectacles. A "foreign atmosphere" pervades him, Hugo bearing the "stamp of an alien radical, a strong resemblance to the type Anarchist as portrayed, bomb in hand, in newspaper cartoons." His pipe dream of political liberation allows him to deny his desire to rule over the masses. He is drunk for the entire play, intermittently rousing from his stupor to denounce the crowd, whine for a drink, and make odes to Babylon.

Ed Mosher - A born grafter, con man, and practical joker. Mosher is a fat, bald in his late fifties with an unshaven kewpie's face. His erstwhile circus career manifests itself in his flashy worn clothes. His pipe dream consists of his return to the circus.

Pat McGloin - Mosher's drinking partner. The fiftyish McGloin has the look of his former police days stamped all over him. His once brutal and greedy face has melted into a "good-humored, parasite's characterlessness." He dreams of disproving his conviction on graft charges and returning to the police force.

Willie Oban - A man in his thirties who left Harvard Law School upon the ruin of his prominent industrialist father. Willie dreams of starting his legal career and he speaks with "mocking suavity." Dressed in paper-thin rags, he shudders continually in his drunken stupor, his eyelids fluttering "as if any light were too strong for his eyes."

Joe Mott - A black man in his fifties who dreams of re-opening his colored gambling house. He wears a once-flashy suit and sports a scar across his left cheek. O'Neill notes that his "face is only mildly Negroid in type" and Joe's pipe dream involves a degree of passing as white.

Piet Wetjoen - A huge Boer in his fifties whose once strapping frame has drowned in a blubbering mass of "flaccid tallow." He is Lewis's drinking partner and dreams of returning to South Africa, having left in disgrace for his cowardice during the Boer war. He is distinguished by his comic accent.

Cecil Lewis - A veteran from the Boer War, Captain Lewis is as "obviously English as Yorkshire pudding." He is in his late fifties, of a lean and erect figure, and sports a war wound on his left shoulder. He dreams of returning to England, having been driven out upon losing his regiment's money in a drunken night of gambling.

James Cameron - Has the face of an "old, well-bred, gentle housedog" with guileless and bloodshot eyes. He has the manners of a gentleman, mixing the qualities of a "prim, Victorian old mad" and a boy who has never grown up. He dreams of returning to his newspaper career. As his name suggests, he is the leader of the so-called "Tomorrow Movement," endlessly deferring the realization of the pipe dream to the day after.

Pearl and Margie - Rocky's two "tarts" are feather-brained, sentimental, lazy, and reasonably content with life. Though they retain a degree of youthful prettiness, their trade is beginning to wear on them. Their pipe dream involves the denial of their status as whores. They relate to their pipe as two affectionate sisters might with a bullying brother.

Chuck Morello - A thick-necked, barrel-chested, swarthy, and amiable Italian American who serves as the day bartender. He shares a pipe dream with his lover and whore Cora about getting married and buying a farm in Jersey.

Cora - A thin, peroxide blonde a few years older than Rocky's tarts whose doll-like prettiness has begun to decline.

Moran and Lieb - The two, ordinary-looking policemen who arrest Hickey. Moran is middle-aged and Lieb in his twenties.

AUDITION TIMES:

Wednesday 14th December, 10am - 2pm
Thursday 15th December, 1pm - 5pm
Friday 16th December, 10am - 2pm
Saturday 17th December, 2pm - 6pm

If you are unavailable for these dates please email the producer to organize an alternative audition time.

NOTE: Though male dominated we are looking to change the gender of some lead roles, so women don't be discouraged from auditioning!

All welcome to audition, Preferably University Students. If you are successful you must become a member of the society to perform.

Rehearsal will run during December, January and February, the show will run for two weeks in March. Dates yet to be confirmed. Must be available during these times. Rehearsals per week are likely to be 1-2 in the first month, most likely 3 or more coming up to show week.

No audition preparation needed.