(Female - 20s-30s) -
Jean is an enigmatic and slightly bohemian presence; a free-spirit with an old soul. She is ultimately a reactive character who
approaches the situation of a dead man in the next booth with a mixture of empathy and obsessive-compulsiveness. There is a charming
awkwardness about her both in her appearance and in her interactions with others that evolves into a more polished presence as she
becomes enmeshed with the Gottliebs. Her background is a mystery, but her goal is ultimately to comfort those who survive Gordon to
the point of lying about the messages he had for them. She is a blank slate of sorts who evolves through the various encounters of
the play into an interesting a desirable woman.
Gordon
(Male - 30s-50s) - Gordon is an amoral character with a gift for charming you into accepting his behavior, no matter how reprehensible.
He deals in black market organs for a living and can completely justify any action in a logical and convincing manner, if one does not
think about his logic too much. Before his death, he is a handsome, wealthy philanderer who loves a conquest more than a personal
connection. He approaches the afterlife with the same amoral curiosity that guided his life. His people are moneyed and may have come
upon hard times of late, which justifies his shady dealings in his mind. He is his mother’s favorite to a fault. This chosen status may
explain his lack of remorse for his actions. He has been estranged from his mother for some time at the time of his death.
Mrs. Harriet Gottlieb
(Female - 40s-60s) - An elegant and pampered woman who has been raised to be the arbiter of taste and behavior in her family and
community, Harriet has lost the most important person in her life as the play’s action unfolds, and she realizes she will never
recover from this loss. This may surprise her slightly because her past has been governed by privilege and ease. She is upper-class
and perhaps has always come from money.
Hermia
(Female - 30s-50s) - Hermia is an unhappy widow who didn’t realize how much her marriage and husband meant to her before they were
both gone. She is a woman of means who looks the other way through her husband multiple affairs. Her biggest regret is her inability
to do the same with his business activities. She is disgusted by his business and this affects her ability to express love and
sexuality with her husband. She is a highly sexual woman and perhaps an alcoholic.
Dwight
(Male - 20s-40s) -
Gordon’s brother. A loveable nerd, Dwight runs a stationery and greeting card shop independant soul. He has always
been on his own emotionally due to his mother’s obsession with Gordon and the early loss of his father. He is emotionally guarded and
one of Jean’s biggest accomplishment is breaking through this barrier to uncover his regret over his brother and their estrangement
and his lack of parental support. He must be able to move from quirky to emotionally raw through the course of the play. Though a nerd,
he does have a handsomeness and sex appeal that mirrors his brother’s which becomes more apparent as the play progresses.
Carlotta (The Other Woman)/Stranger
(Female - 20s+) - The Other Woman: She is a lethal woman, a femme fatale from a bygone age. Her role models are:
Bette Davis, Lana Turner, Joan Crawford, Barbara Stanwyck and Billie Holiday. These influences are apparent in her mannerisms and
her attire. She is a retro siren. Her love of these images from the 30s and 40s influences her attitude towards today’s women, who
she finds lack the self-confidence and the dignity of her idols. Her attitudes are almost of an older drag queen in this respect.
Affiliated with Gordon’s business in some fashion, Carlotta is his current mistress and the romance of the relationship was only
on her part; for him, she was someone to conquer and use. Her resentment of this fuels her extreme actions. She has the same amoral
attitude that she admires in Gordon, and she is made more threatening by his lack of expression of his feelings for her. Now her only
focus is resting control of the business from Gordon’s family and partners and getting what she feels entitled to by any means necessary.
Stranger: A gender ambiguous alter ego of Carlotta, the stranger is physical and deadly, a no nonsense assassin with a single goal: to
control Gordon’s business. The stranger has a masculine and forceful presence that Carlotta lacks. The stranger may be a persona donned
by Carlotta to do her dirty work, an alter personality of a psychotic Carlotta, or a henchman who does Carlotta’s bidding. There is both
a separation of and a unity with the stranger and Carlotta’s character.
