Journey to the Poles of Inaccessibility (One-Act Version)

Casting

MOM — Dylan’s mother

DAD — Dylan’s father

DYLAN — Our hero

AUNT PAT — Dylan’s partially paralyzed aunt

JO — Dylan’s co-worker

CHRIS — Our heroine

JIMI — A police officer

SASHA — The captain of a Russian icebreaker

MISHA — The first mate on the icebreaker

WEI — A waiter in a soup shop in western China

RENE — A hotel concierge in the Central African Republic

AVERY — Owns a car rental agency in Australia

ALEX — A young woman

AN OLD SPANISH EXPLORER — An old Spanish explorer

AN OLD RUSSIAN LEADER — An old Russian leader

Casting Note:
The casting in this show is very flexible. Every character can be played by any gender. Think of the published script as the “traditional” version, but I encourage theater groups to cast it in every possible way. You can perform it as written or flip it and cast Dylan as female and Chris as male. Or with both Dylan and Chris both as women, or both as men, or both non-binary. All the characters have gender-neutral names. Just change the pronouns or Aunt Pat to Uncle Pat and run with it. There are — of course — exceptions. There are a couple of historical characters who should remain male, but that being said, you’re free to have a woman play the part in drag. Also, if you want to keep Aunt Pat as Aunt Pat and cast a male in drag, that’s all right too.

There are fourteen characters in this version of the script, but you can perform the play with as few as five actors. Doubling of roles is expected, but some roles have specific references to race or abled-ness, and they should be cast appropriately.

Setting

Place
All over the world.

Time
Once upon a time…maybe even today.