Monday V119 and Tuesday V044 (both days 7:30 until 10)
NOTE: This is a radio drama with many roles. Even if you have other commitments in weeks 8 and 9 it won't take much of time to record seeing as there's no need to be off script and no staging making it a great but not to time consuming project so why not get involved?
‘England, May 1645: The civil war that has torn England apart between King Charles I and Parliament is nearing its bloody conclusion — and in the English countryside, a stranger seeks his old love and finds there is a son whom he has never seen...’
You would be excused, perhaps, for thinking that this is the introduction to a thrilling historical novel. And you'd be dead right. Yet this is not the history you know, for the world has turned on to a new and deadly path.
With breathtaking imagination, Ben Jeapes has wrenched the familiar flow of English history out of its course and made it into something else, something entirely other. There is a third force, an entirely alien force — the Holekhor — who have martial powers of their own, their own religious leaders who command mysterious and strange forces, and who bring with them technology that should not have been seen in England for another three hundred years...
Prepare to be astounded. History will never be the same again.’
Described by the Sunday Times in 2004 as "Without doubt the best science fiction book of the year”, University Radio York has the privilege of the first ever dramatization of this incredible novel.
With the power of the radio in a student production we can create breathtaking battles on a scale of Hollywood blockbusters convincingly, hear as Cromwell rides up White Horse Hill, mines going off left and right, machine guns stutter in the darkness and the drone of an airship pervades the air.
Furthermore we have specially commisioned music which will give the production a real filmic feel. This is a production more ambitious than URY's national award winning drama team has ever attempted and it’s something that you can listen to for years to come.
With a selection of incredible complex characters caught up in a complex web of morality, religious fervour and political intrigue this is a production that truly will grip and astound hopefully (but only with your help!)
Characters
Dhon Do (John Donder) (lead)
General and estranged father who is forced to lead an invasion of England. A man who battles to come to terms with having to take the country he loves while coming to terms with being a father of a son he never knew he had. Foreign accent (possibly Scandinavian but open to interpretation)
Daniel Mathews (lead)
Young teenager and then young adult– needs to sound young but versatile actor as Daniel returns as a young man in the second part. Daniel is a young man who has grown up in the care of a local priest and survived the Royal defeat at Edgehill. The story shows the his relationship with his father develop through the political and military intrigue.
Cromwell (lead)
Leader of the Parliamentarian forces in the civil war. The key political figure in the story who is a forceful leader
Khonel Le (Mistress Connelly) (lead)
Strong willed women who is a refugee of the war in the old world and has set up a business providing weapons to the parliamentarian forces in the civil war. She has a complex relationship with the politics of England and Dhon Do (Donder). She has a foreign accent like Donder’s, again open to interpretation.
Francis
Elderly kindly priest who has brought Daniel up in his home village of Branheath. Fatherly figure of authority and morality the story.
Prince Charles/ King Charles the 2nd
Arrogant adolescent whose voice has just broken, aware of his rank and proud of it but watching his world fall apart around him. Becomes confident and elegant in manor in the second half but still has an air of childish authority although hes hiding a mask of great intelligence.
King Charles
Self important but nervous leader and family man who like his son is watching the world fall apart around him. – Stammering nervous character.
Re Nokh
Beurocratic snivelling jobsworth with foreign accent in line with Donder and Khonnel Le.
Princess Elizabeth
Young royal princess – stately and eloquent. Love interest in Episode 2 when she is in her late teens early twenties.
And there are a huge number of further characters.
And there are dozens more parts up for grabs including small children, other key men and women on both sides.
We are looking to get an further ensemble of around 20 people to voice all these extra parts so there is a vast amount to go around!
The drama will be recorded over a couple of weeks next term (provisionally weeks 8 and 9)
Audition material will be provided for each character outside the audition room.
