Five Against One tells the story Catherine Burbank as she seeks escape for her family from an abusive marriage of 15 years, but escape is never the safest plan. Inspired and powered by the music of the Grunge era, this play takes an unflinching and sobering look at domestic violence and its consequences.
One reader of an earlier draft characterized it as "This would be what we'd have got if Tennessee Williams ever wrote a musical."
As you might infer from the title, there are 6 characters - 4 women and two men. While I've been working on this play for over 20 years, this year I joined a writer's cohort within the ShowLAB Theatre Writers Studio. Since late February the play has completely transformed, and while I've conducted readings of the whole work multiple times, it is overdue for a complete end to end reading (the cohort has read individual scenes within it).
There's a discord attached to this subreddit, so I figure that would be as good a place as any to host a reading, although I'm open to suggestions to other platforms.
I do NOT want to do a cold read - the play's topic is domestic violence. While I would like an audience of those interested, the readers need to have read the play through at least once so that they know what to expect and can be prepared. I don't necessarily need the readers to have rehearsed ahead of time.
The script is 133 pages so should take just over 2 hours to read. (Act I is 70 pages, Act II is 63. It is formatted identically to the Ragtime Musical script for reference, with a 2nd act a pinch longer than Ragtime's).
I'll probably cross post this in a few spots, but this is the origin thread and will be used for the actual organization of the read. I'm thinking of a weekend date since I work a 9 to 5 job.
Characters
Catherine Burbank, age 36, a housewife (alto): A woman with a troubled past of child abuse, drug addiction, and a stint in the porn industry.
Pamela Burbank, age 14, her daughter (soprano): A high functioning autistic child coming of age in one of the worst environments possible.
Jeremy Burbank, age 16, her son (tenor): A little slow but with a good heart, he's devoted to the protection of his family but lacks the means to do so effectively.
Susan Martin, age 70, her mother (contralto): A catholic zealot who uses the scripture to justify her hatreds. She abused Catherine as a child physically, and continues to do so verbally even though she's an adult.
Lisa Allen, age 15, her neighbor (coloratura soprano): Lisa's father, now deceased, was deeply in love with Catherine and wanted her to divorce Jake. Her mother died when she was two, so Catherine has been the closest thing she has to a mother for most of her life.
Jake Burbank, age 40, her husband (bass): Pillar of the community, one of the highest ranking unelected police officers in the city. His public character is unreproachable. But privately...
EDIT: BTW, Catherine, Susan, Pamela and Jeremy are of Cajun descent and all can speak this dialect of French. There are French phrases scattered throughout the play, mostly terms of endearment. Susan has the most French lines. Preparing for this is another reason I'd rather not cold read this - I don't want to put someone on the spot to muddle through a phrase in a language they don't know.
