The Fox Auditions
Auditions: 15 & 16 November 2025
A Dunedin premiere of D.H. Lawerence’s “The Fox”
Adapted for the stage & directed by Keith Scott
Introduction
The Globe Theatre Dunedin opens its 2026 season with a new stage adaptation of D.H. Lawrence’s 1922 Novella “The Fox”. This is a unique opportunity to be to be part of the Dunedin premiere of a new play while exploring, experiencing, and presenting a work of one of the greatest writers and giants of English Literature.
Overview
Late 1918, rural England and the war is over. Two women struggle to run a small farm. They accept their humdrum, albeit unfulfilling lives in bleak times. But this status quo is disrupted by two visitors. A fox has begun to take their hens and a young soldier arrives. These seemingly unrelated events combine and clash with unexpected consequences. In a fierce battle of multiple wills, human and animal, body and spirit, Lawrence explores the dynamics of power play when instincts are triggered that are as old as life itself. As the story unfolds, we are drawn into an intriguing and challenging place, about which we must draw our individual conclusions.
Season Dates*
Tuesday 24 February 7.30 pm (Preview)
Thursday 26 February to Saturday 28 February 7.30 pm
Sunday 1 March 2.00pm
Wednesday 4 March to Saturday 7 March 7.30 pm
Sunday 8 March 2.00 pm (Closing Matinee)
* All performances TBC. Auditioning actors must be available for all of the above performance dates.
Rehearsal Schedule
Costume fitting will take place November 2025.
There will be 2 weeks of script only table reads in December 2025 (The play is heavily dialogue based hence more script read throughs than usual)
On stage rehearsals begin Saturday 9 January
Tech and dress rehearsal week 15 February to 23 February
The rehearsal and production schedule will be worked out once the production is cast and their individual situations are known, but it is envisaged to involve at least two nights a week and two daytime rehearsals in the weekend.
About the Auditions
Auditions will take place at The Globe Theatre (104 London Street, Dunedin) on Saturday, 15 November from 11AM to 4PM and Sunday, 16 November from 10AM to 1PM. Actors may be required to attend a callback on Saturday, 22 November between 11AM and 4PM.
If you would like to audition but cannot attend on the audition dates, please contact the Production Manager, Sheena Townsend at treasurer@globetheatre.org.nz to arrange a possible alternative.
What To Expect
Auditions will be conducted by application only (no drop ins). The application link is provided at the bottom of this page, and the call for applications closes at 5PM on Friday, 7 November 2025. In your application, you will be asked about your audition availability when you apply to auditions. After the call for auditions close, you will be notified of your audition slot. Your initial audition will be about 20 to 30 minutes and will be individual. Call backs will involve all three characters.
Audition Scripts and How to Prepare
Audition scripts (or “sides”) can be found linked below. There is no need to learn these scenes but be familiar with them and ensure you have read the play synopsis and character synopsis. It would be preferable if female-presenting actors auditioned for both roles.
Important Information PLEASE READ
When applying to audition please be ready to provide as much specific detail as you can regarding availability for rehearsal, especially certain dates you know you are not available, and times you are unavailable because of work, study or other regular commitments. All actors cast must become members of The Globe Theatre ($15.00 annual fee) and agree to sign and follow a cast and creatives code of conduct. You do not need to be a member to audition.
Characters
Nellie March: Female-presenting in her 30s.
Jill Banford: Female-presenting in her 30s
Henry Grenfel: Male-presenting in his 20s
Notes
There is no option for any gender reversals in this play.
The age range of the actors can be reasonably flexible.
Two scenes between Henry and Nellie involves a brief kiss and physical closeness which an intimacy coach will assist with.
Nellie and Jill live together, but are not in a relationship.
Henry and Nellie need to handle a rifle.
There is no physical violence but there is emotional manipulation.
While reference is made to dead animals, they are never seen.
The death of Jill Banford takes place off stage.
Character Synopses and Audition Scripts
Jill Banford
Jill is insecure, skittish and at times peevish, but she is also generous and often childlike and playful. She is content with her life with Nellie. Therefore, the prospect of Nellie marrying Henry horrifies her not only because of how it will impact on her life, but because it makes her face sexual physicality. She is forced to fight for her secure and safe world which is unsullied by men and anchored in Nellie. She is fighting, quite literally as it turns out, for her life.
Nellie March
Lawrence describes Nellie as follows: “Nellie did most of the outdoor work. She looked almost like some graceful, loose-balanced young man, straight shoulders, her movements easy and confident. But her face was not a man’s face, ever., but strange, shy and sardonic at once. There was something odd and unexplained about her.” Her encounter with the fox triggers a change in her, or more correctly an awakening of feelings and awareness previously latent or suppressed. This seems to manifest itself as confusion and ambivalence, but that is not really the case. The fox does not only dispossesses her; it empowers her. But her emotional journey and struggle take its toll and, in the end, she is exhausted and wrung-out, even though she remains determined to fight.
Henry Grenfel
From the first time we see him, we identify him with the fox. Like the fox, Henry exerts a power over Nellie because he has contributed to awakening the new consciousness in her. Henry is self-assured. He accepts Jill’s sisterly fondness, to indulge her as she is no threat. He is less settled with Nellie’s apparent indifference and veiled scrutinisation of him as his interest in her develops. When he proposes marriage, he does so with characteristic confidence, but later when trying to get her to re-affirm her agreement to marry him, that confidence evaporates. He may appear to be controlling and possessive, but he genuinely believes that he will make her safe, and be without fear and they will both be complete. But, as with Nellie, his striving and straining, takes its toll. The confident self-assured man, is reduced to doubt, worry and to begging.
