Our Cast List

In the course of producing our voice-based electronic edition of The Waste Land, we used a variety of methods to settle on a cast list consisting of twelve distinct voices. This list of voices is the one with which you must work in completing the "Have Your Own Say" section of this website. This is not to say that we consider it definitive; indeed, we invite you to disagree with our cast list—to find more, fewer, or simply different voices. When the technical resources exist, we intend to make it possible for you to edit our character list, or to devise one of your own.

This listing describes some of characteristics and vocal traits of the members of our dramatis personae. It displays the name of each voice in the font and size in which they appear in the poem as presented on this website.

Name	Tiresias
Age	70s-90s
Tone	Objective, detached, but sympathetic
Accent	Unknown
Languages spoken	English
Characteristic lines	I Tiresias, old man with wrinkled dugs Perceived the scene, and foretold the rest

Name	Marie
Age	60s-70s
Tone	Nostalgic
Accent	German
Languages spoken	English, German
Characteristic lines	And when we were children, staying at the archduke's, My cousin's, he took me out on a sled, And I was frightened.

Name	Hellfire Preacher
Age	50s-60s
Tone	Prophetic, censorious, condemning, enraged
Accent	American
Languages spoken	English
Characteristic lines	What are the roots that clutch, what branches grow Out of this stony rubbish? Son of man, You cannot say, or guess, for you know only A heap of broken images

Name	Chorus
Age	Multiple/Ageless
Tone	Distant, detached
Accent	Multiple
Languages spoken	All
Characteristic lines	Drip drop drip drop drop drop drop

Name	Intrepid Reporter
Age	30s
Tone	That of a radio or newsreel announcer of the 1920s
Accent	English
Languages spoken	English
Characteristic lines	Madame Sosostris famous clairvoyante, Had a bad cold, nevertheless Is known to be the wisest woman in Europe, With a wicked pack of cards.

Name	Madame Sosostris
Age	60s-70s
Tone	Businesslike, polite, helpful
Accent	Slight, Egyptian
Languages spoken	English, (Arabic)
Characteristic lines	Thank you. If you see dear Mrs. Equitone, Tell her I bring the horoscope myself

Name	Crazy Prufrock
Age	30s
Tone	Alternately manic/delusional, detached/grim, and cynical/angst-ridden
Accent	American and/or English
Languages spoken	English, Italian, French, Latin, some Sanskrit
Characteristic lines	I think we are in rats' alley Where the dead men lost their bones.

Name	Nervous One
Age	30s
Tone	Nervous, anxious
Accent	English
Languages spoken	English
Characteristic lines	"My nerves are bad to-night. Yes, bad. Stay with me."

Name	Woman in Bar
Age	40s
Tone	Chatty, gossipy
Accent	Cockney English
Languages spoken	English
Characteristic lines	Well, if Albert won't leave you alone, there it is, I said, What you get married for if you don't want children?

Name	Barman
Age	50s-60s
Tone	Bellowing
Accent	Cockney English
Languages spoken	English
Characteristic lines	HURRY UP PLEASE ITS TIME

Name	The Typist
Age	20s
Tone	Meek, resigned
Accent	English
Languages spoken	English
Characteristic lines	"Well now that's done: and I'm glad it's over."

Name	The Thunder
Age	Ageless
Tone	Prophetic, serene
Accent	—
Languages spoken	Sanskrit
Characteristic lines	DA