Sherlock Holmes and the Adventure of the Elusive Ear

Audition Date: July 29, 7.30 for 7.45pm start.

Call backs: July 31.

No prepared monologues required!

We will just be reading scenes from the script so please – read it before the audition. I’ll be expecting that everyone is familiar with the story and what they might be up for if cast.

To get a copy of the script, email me at paul.sztelma@uts.edu.au and feel free to reach out if you have any questions.

(ages of individual characters are fluid and depends on fitting in with the rest of the cast).

Sherlock Holmes (M, 30s to early 50s)

Highly intelligent and dashing with the requisite ego, but he’s also a bit of a doofus.

Even though this version of Holmes ticks all the usual boxes, there’s a mild subversiveness to his character. He likes to um, “get it on”. Upper class English accent.

John Watson (M, 30s to early 50s)

The practical one of the duo but with his own secret peccadilloes. Knows what the English reading public wants and will move mountains to give it to them. Upper class English accent, perhaps with a slight Scottish brogue (though not necessary).

Irene Adler (F, mid 20s to 40s)

Just as clever as her lover Holmes, perhaps even more so. A raconteur, reformed criminal and superb swordswoman. She wields her sex appeal like a surgeon’s scalpel – but always for a just cause. Standard American accent but must also be able to do a cockney London accent (or reasonable facsimile).

ACTOR NOTE: Irene partakes in a fencing duel “the equal of anything conjured up by Errol Flynn or Douglas Fairbanks”. A violence choreographer will be on board to make that happen.

Vincent van Gogh (M, mid 20s to 30s)

Dishevelled painter, currently missing an ear. Distraught, penniless and a little bit smelly. Wracked with self-doubt but an utter romantic and unrecognised artistic genius. Dutch accent.

Marie Chartier (F, mid 20s to 40s)

A French femme fatale moulded by her own history with Holmes and her infamous father. She has an appetite for vengeance and a bloody mindedness to see it through. The ying to Irene’s yang. French accent.

ACTOR NOTE: Marie is the other half of the fencing duel and also has to throw herself through an open window.

Oscar Wilde (M, 30s to early 50s)

Flamboyant, famous and erudite. Upper class, educated dandy who likes a frolic with whomever’s up for a frolic. English accent.