GENERAL NOTE ON CASTING
The doubling of characters is encouraged, particularly for the crowd scenes, but at least 5 walking players are recommended. Suggestions for doubling include: 1 actor for Filer/Undertaker, 1 actor for Worthy/Orator/Head Goblin, the child to play both Lilian and Bowley's son, etc.
TOBY VECK
a 60 year old messenger, small and spare. He has a great liking for the bells in the Church tower near his station, and invests them with a strange & solemn character.
MARGARET VECK
Toby's daughter, early twenties. Meg is an embroiderer and is engaged to Richard.
RICHARD
an independently-minded young blacksmith.
ALDERMAN CUTE
a garrulous and officious middle-aged Justice, severe in his treatment of the poor, but who prides himself on his easy, affable nature.
FILER
of a meager habit and a disconsolate face, he is full of "facts and figures," and is ready to prove anything with statistics; a friend of Cute's.
WORTHY
a red-faced gentleman who constantly bemoans the current climate and yearns for "the good old times!"
SIR JOSEPH BOWLEY
a member of the Parliament, who prides himself on being the "poor man's friend and father," who endeavors on all occasions to, "…inculcate the one great moral lesson that class requires, that is, entire dependence on myself."
LADY BOWLEY
a junoesque lady, some years younger than her husband.
SPIRIT GUIDE
the ghost of the woman Toby read killed herself and child. She leads him through the phantasm cast by the Head Goblin.
TUGSBY
Lord Bowley's porter, pugnacious and demanding.
FISH
personal secretary to Lord Bowley.
WILL FERN
an itinerant laborer, uncle to Lilian; he suffers from a bad reputation.
LILIAN FERN
in Act I, a child of 9. In Act II a young woman, as Toby dreams, Meg's adopted daughter, who comes to a bad end.
HEAD GOBLIN
the Spirit that resides in the largest of the Church chimes; he sends Toby on his nightmare journey.
MRS. CHICKENSTALKER
a sweet, stout matron. She runs a general store and, Toby dreams, she marries Tugsby.
UNDERTAKER
a sinister man who, Toby dreams, ministers to Richard.
PLAYERS
grifter, parrot man, chimney sweep, whore, pimp, orator, constable, wealthy woman and her maid, Lord Bowley's son (age 12), drumplayer, wealthy men, tradespeople, assorted spirits and goblins.
