Description
CHARACTERS
THIS PLAY IS WRITTEN TO BE PERFORMED BY 4 ACTORS – F1 M3
THE 3 MALE ACTORS (LATE 20s – 40s) EACH PLAY PHILBY, AS WELL AS THE FOLLOWING:
PHILBY
OLD PHILBY
YOUNGER PHILBY
ELLIOTT
ANGLETON
BURGESS
KRÔTENSHIELD
CIVIL SERVANT
APPARATCHIK
MENZIES
MILNE
MAKAYEV
INTELLIGENCE OFFICER 1
INTELLIGENCE OFFICER 2
COPELAND
WHITE
FOREIGN OFFICE SPOKESMAN
SPEAKER
NEWSPAPER SELLER
MALE JOURNALIST 1
MALE JOURNALIST 2
WAITER
THE FEMALE ACTOR (LATE 20s – 40s) PLAYS THE FOLLOWING;
RUFINA, EDITH, ELIZABETH, AILEEN, LADY JOURNALIST
AUTHOR NOTE – There’s no standard cast breakdown as the three men play all the male roles, and the one woman plays all the women’s roles. At any one time, the second or third male actor plays whatever role the first can’t play simply by virtue of already being onstage playing something else. I’ve written the play so that there should be enough time for the second or third actor to do a very quick costume change (i.e., slipping into a boater and striped jacket to play Burgess). At one point, on page 12, Elizabeth is initially speaking to no one, as the actor playing Angleton needs enough time to do the speediest of costume changes to get into character. At all times I’ve opted for speed over character accuracy, in the sense that it should be slightly dizzying for the audience to figure out how many actors there actually are, and who’s playing Philby. The central conceit of the play is that Philby is many people, so that it should be slightly disorienting to follow who’s playing him, as the three actors are bound to look a little dissimilar. (I wouldn’t be averse to having a mixed-race cast, as long as they were vaguely the same height, but generally speaking the actors should blur into each other, as stated on the character/set page at the beginning.) Technically speaking, though, a much larger number of actors could perform the play, as long as 3 different ones play Philby.
RUNNING TIME
Approximately 100 minutes
PREVIEW
Preview available here
