Reading: The Lady Vanishes

A read through of this classic.

Directed by Scott Hawley.

The Lady Vanishes is a fun drama adapted by Derek Webb for the Ethel Lina White novel The Wheel Spins. 

The plot (without giving too much away) is that a young lady Iris Carr befriends another lady Miss Froy on the train before she mysteriously disappears. Iris tries to work out what happened to her but no one else seems to remember her or be willing to help. Over the course of the show we learn the reasons behind people’s motivations to brush the whole affair off.

There are plenty of great parts of various sizes. Roles like Miss Froy and the Flood-Porters might not be the largest but certainly have plenty of scope for being very memorable. 

Two auditions, just to accommodate more people.

Open for all!

Read Through: Fri 5th December, 7:30pm
Audition 1:  Wed 10th December, 7:30pm
Audition 2:  Wed 17th December, 7:30pm
Run Dates: 20th-28th March, 2026.

Principals (4m, 7f)

Iris Carr : 20s-30s, wealthy, headstrong, but very likeable and sociable
Miss Froy : 50s-60s, warm hearted, gregarious and generous
Max Hare : 20s-30s, cheerful, very capable
Todhunter : 40s-50s, blustering, domineering, actually Lord Brown incognito
‘Mrs Todhunter’ : 40s-50s, actually Mrs Parmiter, having an affair with Lord Brown
Miss Evelyn Flood-Porter : 50s-60s, very opinionated, rather overbearing
Miss Rose Flood-Porter : 40s-50s, her sister, less overbearing but just as opinionated
Mrs Barnes : 30s-40s, his wife, she wears the trousers, a definite chatterbox
The Baroness : 50s-60s, austere, dominant, a character you don’t want to mess with
The Doctor : 40s-50s, Eastern European ‘doctor’, rather creepy, bearded
The Professor : 30s-60s, slightly pompous, but warm, doesn’t like to be proved wrong

Support (2m, 2f, 2m/f)

Reverend Kenneth Barnes : 30s-50s, amiable, but rather ineffectual and sickly
Frau Kummer : 30s-50s, stern Eastern European, hardly a barrel of laughs
Waiter : 30s-50s, friendly, tries to be helpful, but probably quite lazy
Nun : 30s-50s, slightly mysterious and anonymous character
Border Official : 30s-50s, small part in one scene (m/f)
Porter : 40s-50s, small part in last scene (m/f, non-speaking)

Doubling Arrangements:
Waiter, Border Official and Rev Barnes
Frau Kummer and the Nun
Todhunter and the Porter