Characters and Actors
(Age ranges are provided as an indication of appearance only, but they also illustrate the age relative to other roles.)
Female-Presenting Roles
Thomasina Coverly (ages from 13 to 16 during the course of the play, 1800s): although technically a child through most of the play, this is a difficult acting role with adult material; she presents as a serious but precocious academic, as a spoiled child when her academic prowess is ignored and as a maturing young woman with romantic and blossoming sexual feelings (she attempts to seduce Septimus, her tutor) – Given the difficult material in this role, we will likely cast an actor over the age of 18 who can appear 13-16 on stage, but we would also consider people in this age range.
Lady Croom (30s, 1800s): the lady of the house in the early 1800s, she can be forthright, romantic, imperious, foolish, setin her ways… often all in rapid succession
Hannah Jarvis (late 30s through 40s, 1990s): an author and academic (although less rigorously academic than Bernard or Valentine), she is caught up in her own world of research and doesn’t always relate well to others; she may come off as“cold,” but she’s really just how circumstances have shaped her and she is certainly passionate about her research
Chloë Coverly (20s, 1990s): the daughter of the house in the 1990s, she is “less serious” than the other characters around her, but she certainly pursues her interests rigorously
Male-Presenting Roles
Septimus Hodge (mid 20s, 1800s): tutor to Thomasina Coverly, a romantic character who is idealized and who has relationships with (at least) two women of the household and feels deeply enough to become the hermit of Sidley Park
Jellaby (any age, although not likely too young, 1800s): butler at Sidley Park, responsible in his duties but enjoys
indulging in gossip
Ezra Chater (30s/40s, 1800s): a failed poet with a performative sense of honour but a guilelessness that allows him to be easily distracted
Richard Noakes (40s/50s, 1800s): landscape architect at Sidley Park, strongly committed to romantic ideals as opposed and overturning the classical, maybe a bit of a “blowhard”
Captain Brice (30s/40s, 1800s): a captain in the Royal Navy and brother to the lady of the house, he is more primarily with (distracting from) his amorous adventures
Bernard Nightingale (from 40 possibly up to an attractive early 50s, mostly he is slightly older than Hannah, 1990s): a don at Oxford, vain, self-important and academically ambitious – to the point of being a bit of a peacock – he allows his belief in his own (incomplete) work to silence the doubts of others… to his own downfall
Valentine Coverly (mid/late 20s, 1990s): a contemporary academic, possibly somewhat shy and effacing or possibly just too self-involved to relate well with others
Gus / Augustus Coverly (aged 15, both 1800s and 1990s): plays the youngest son in both the early 1800s and the early 1990s who conveys a lot with few lines (the 1990s Gus does not speak at all)
