The play
An old man is dead, and his caretaker is sitting in the parlour with two policemen, being very calm about it.
Poe's narrator confesses from a cell, after the fact, to nobody in particular. This adaptation puts him in a chair instead — across a table from Officers Landis and Daniels, in real time, on the night itself.
Edward is young, educated, and a writer who never became one. For a year he has fetched things for a rich old man who never once asked him a question about himself. Tonight two policemen are asking him a great many, and he is doing well. He is doing better than well. He is enjoying it.
The floorboards are the only thing in the room that disagree.
One act, roughly fifty-five minutes, three actors, a single continuous scene. Set in the 1840s and played without an interval.
The plan
One script, three afterlives
The production is built to exist in three forms. It is staged live first, in a small Denver room, in front of an audience close enough to hear the actors breathe. It is then filmed in the manner of a classical television play — fixed cameras, long takes, no coverage for its own sake. Finally it is adapted again as audio drama, where a heartbeat under the floor is arguably where the story always belonged.
We are aiming the live production at Denver in 2027 and applying for funding to support it. Nothing is confirmed yet, and this page will say so plainly until it is.
Casting
Three adult male actors, Denver
Auditions are by submission first. Send the form below and we will be in touch to arrange a read. No prepared monologue required — you will read from the script.
- Edward
- Lead · onstage throughout The old man's live-in caretaker. Educated, watchful, and funny in the way frightened people are funny. He talks for most of an hour and almost gets away with it. The largest role in the play by a wide margin.
- Officer Landis
- Supporting · the detective Patient, unhurried, entirely unimpressed. Has the fewest lines in the play and does the most damage with them. Wants an actor comfortable holding a long silence.
- Officer Daniels
- Supporting · the warm one Decent, easy company, genuinely sympathetic — and the reason Edward keeps talking when he should stop. Harder than it looks.
This is unpaid. Saying it plainly rather than burying it: there is no fee for this production. Rehearsals are scheduled around your availability, and we are applying for funding now. If it lands, the people who made this unpaid are the first people asked to make the paid version.
Submit
Put your name in
Not auditioning?
Hear when there are tickets
One email when performance dates are set, and very little in between.