Page 10 of The Silent Appeal

From: Kevin MacDonald

Date: January 4, 2025

Subject: Character breakdown

Dear Fairway Players,

As promised, here is a character breakdown for The Hollow and a scan of the diagram Sarah-Jane has drawn to illustrate the tangled relationships between the characters. This is a play about the dark side of romance and how love can go so wrong, it ends in murder.

The Angkatell family live in a large house called the Hollow. However, they are preoccupied with how they used to live at the family’s large country estate, Ainswick, before their uncle died and it was inherited by cousin Edward. I should mention that cousin marriage is de rigueur in this world.

This is what the script says or implies about each character. Not me, the script, and I am a big believer that when we stage a play, we retain the integrity of the author’s original intention.

Sir Henry Angkatell

An elderly gentleman. He and his wife, Lucy, are second cousins.

Lady Lucy Angkatell

A charming, eccentric, aristocratic woman of sixty. She speaks five languages and is adept at getting away with things. Henrietta says she has manners but is cruel. This is a proper character part for a confident actor to get their teeth into.

Description 1

Henrietta Angkatell

A handsome woman who works as a sculptor. She likes her cousin Edward, but not enough to marry him as the family would like. She is having an affair with John Cristow.

Midge Harvey

Midge is short for Margery. Her mother was Lady Angkatell’s first cousin. She is the poor relation who works in a dress shop and is hopelessly in love with her cousin Edward.

Edward Angkatell

Second cousin of Henry and Henrietta. He inherited Ainswick. The family wants him to marry Henrietta, whom he is in love with (but he also knows that she loves John Cristow). Edward is unaware Midge is in love with him.

Gudgeon

The perfect butler. A man of few words, except when he’s bullying the maid.

Doris

The maid. She is terrified of Gudgeon, whose bullying she is clearly powerless to stop.

John Cristow

A Harley Street doctor, John is a good-looking, dynamic risk-taker. He was engaged to Veronica Craye ten years ago, but broke it off because he didn’t want to ditch his medical career to go with her to Hollywood. He’s regretted that decision ever since.

Gerda Cristow

John’s wife. Midge describes her as “rather dim,” Lucy that she’s “devoid of intelligence” and that she looks like “a puzzled cow.” Stage directions say “timid and rather stupid.” John, her husband, says she is “patient and long-suffering.”

Veronica Craye

Hollywood star, blonde with a husky voice. Was engaged to John ten years ago, before she went to America, and now she’s back. She and John are still in love.

Inspector Colquhoun

Attractive, thoughtful, quiet with charm and a sense of humor.