Audition Excerpt for BosolaThis is a featured page



AUDITION NOTES:
  • The production team will provide you with a scene partner to read with.
  • Memorizing the text is not required.
  • Mr. Hopkins is requesting you perform two pieces:
  1. The first will be of your choosing. (Our hope is that this will help warm you up and help you feel more comfortable before taking a pass at Webster's text, which can be challenging)
  2. The second will be from our script and is printed below.
  • There are additional notes to consider in the column on the right. These are here to give you more context IF you find that useful. Don't overdo it! There will be no written exam! :)

And most importantly enjoy yourself. We do not expect a "perfect" performance. We merely want a sense of who you are and what you may be able to contribute to our production. Have fun and we appreciate everyone's efforts in advance.
It will be great to meet you all face to face!
Jordan Morris: Producer




THE EXCERPT:


BOSOLA
I am come to make thy tomb.

DUCHESS
Ha–my tomb!
Thou speak'st as if I lay upon my death-bed,
Gasping for breath. Dost thou perceive me sick?

BOSOLA
Yes; and the more dangerously since thy sickness is insensible.

DUCHESS
Thou art not mad, sure; dost know me?

BOSOLA
Yes.

DUCHESS
Who am I?

BOSOLA
Thou art a box of worm-seed; at best, but a salvatory of green mummy. What's this flesh? A little
crudded milk, fantastical puff-paste. Our bodies are weaker than those paper-prisons boys use to keep
flies in; more contemptible, since ours is to preserve earth-worms. Didst thou ever see a lark in a cage?
Such is the soul in the body: this world is like her little turf of grass, and the heaven o'er our heads like
her looking-glass, only gives us a miserable knowledge of the small compass of our prison.

DUCHESS
Am not I thy duchess?

BOSOLA
Thou art some great woman, sure; for riot begins to sit on thy forehead (clad in gray hairs) twenty years
sooner than on a merry milk-maid's. Thou sleepest worse than if a mouse should be forced to take up her
lodging in a cat's ear; a little infant that breeds its teeth, should it lie with thee, would cry out as if thou
wert the more unquiet bedfellow.

DUCHESS
I am Duchess of Malfi still.

BOSOLA
That makes thy sleep so broken:
Glories. like glow-worms, afar off shine bright;
But look'd to near, have neither heat nor light.

DUCHESS
Thou art very plain.

BOSOLA
My trade is to flatter the dead, not the living;
I am a tomb-maker.

DUCHESS
And thou comest to make my tomb?

BOSOLA
Yes.

DUCHESS
Let me be a little merry; of what stuff wilt thou make it?

BOSOLA
Nay, resolve me first: of what fashion?

DUCHESS
Why, do we grow fantastical on our deathbed?
Do we affect fashion in the grave?

BOSOLA
Most ambitiously. Princes' images on their tombs do not lie–as they were wont–seeming to pray up to
heaven, but with their hands under their cheeks, as if they died of the tooth-ache. They are not carved
with their eyes fix'd upon the stars, but as their minds were wholly bent upon the world, the selfsame
way they seem to turn their faces.

DUCHESS
Let me know fully therefore the effect
Of this, thy dismal preparation;
This talk fit for a charnel.

BOSOLA
Now I shall. [Enter EXECUTIONERS with a coffin, cords, and a bell.]
Here is a present from your princely brothers,
And may it arrive welcome: for it brings
Last benefit, last sorrow.

DUCHESS
Let me see it.
I have so much obedience in my blood,
I wish it in their veins to do them good.

BOSOLA
This is your last presence-chamber.

DUCHESS
Peace; it affrights not me.

BOSOLA
I am the common bellman
That usually is sent to condemn'd persons
The night before they suffer.

DUCHESS
Even now thou said'st
Thou wast a tomb-maker.

BOSOLA
'Twas to bring you
By degrees to mortification. Listen. [Rings the bell.]
Hark, now everything is still;
The screech-owl and the whistler shrill.
Call upon our dame aloud,
And bid her quickly don her shroud.
Much you had of land and rent:
Your length in clay's now competent.
A long war disturb'd your mind,
Here your perfect peace is sign'd.
Of what is't fools make such vain keeping?
Sin their conception, their birth weeping,
Their life a general mist of error,
Their death a hideous storm of terror.
Strew your hair with powders sweet,
Don clean linen, bathe your feet,
And (the foul fiend more to check),
A crucifix let bless your neck.
'Tis now full tide 'tween night and day:
End your groan and come away.

END

Some context:

This excerpt is taken from the Duchess's powerful death scene.

Bosola has been employed by Duke Ferdinand to kill his sister and here implements his plan to do so.

Upon witnessing the nobility and fearlessness of the Duchess while facing her own death, the cold blooded killer-for-hire Bosola seems to display symptoms of guilt for the first time. Though he was the one who arranged her death, he then quickly seeks to avenge it.

Bosola can be considered the most complex character in the play because his motivations and actions seem so contradictory at times.

Is he truly evil, or is he merely an implement for ugliness wielded by the nobility he is sworn to serve? Are these evil assignments actually easy for Bosola or does he remotely/internally struggle with what he sees as his only option in life as the unsavory weapon of choice for his ruling upper class?

Does he (after witnessing the Duchess's searing last moments) actually transform from villain to hero, or is that change in direction simply how it seems to an observer? Perhaps he simply breaks free from the shackles of his ruling masters to finally become his own man?

It's a terrific challenge for an actor to interpret the complex internal conflict of this fantastic character!


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Hopkins

As you study the excerpt and prepare for your audition, also consider the following questions that Mr. Hopkins may ask you:

Why do you suppose Bosola chooses this particular method to kill the Duchess'?


Does Bosola believe in the concept of Heaven and Hell.?


Have the coffin carriers been forwarned by Bosola?


Is there anything that happens in the scene that surprises Bosola?


Is his carefully pre-meditated plan changed by anything the Duchess says?


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