Dream Casting, Sandman Casting Call Part 14: Maiden, Mother, Crone, and Crazed Agent of Vengeance. Yay!

October 4th, 2010 by

The three woman who repeatedly appear in Sandman went by many names: the kindly ones, the fates, the furies, the weird sisters.  They were consistently shown as a trio of woman that seemed to function as one being.  They always appear as one young woman, one middle aged women and one very old woman, aka the maiden, the mother, and the crone.

They served many purposes in the series.  They were used as prophets, that occasionally commented on the action, and less frequently propelled it.  They were also the furies, the means through which justice for a primal crime, was acted out.

Typically they looked different every time they appeared, so to remain true to the comic they should be played by several different actresses.  However for the purposes of keeping this post relatively short, I will only cast one actress each.

Lisa Backwell as the maiden.

She played the lovable, loopy, and naive, Pandora on the third and fourth series of Skins.  She has a round, child like face, that would make for a good contrast with the other two.  The maiden was sometimes drawn as older and more voluptuous than Backwell, but she also sometimes looked like little more than child.

Brenda Blethyn as the mother.

While she is a very versitile actor, she has played quite a few mothers.  In such films as Pride and Prejudice, Lovely and Amazing, and Little Voice.  All very different mums, but maternal nonetheless.

Jackie Burroughs as the crone.

Burroughs has been working steadily since the mid sixties, and is still going strong.  She has looked nearly exactly the same for the past twenty years.

Finally for today’s post is Hippolyta Hall.  She was not created for the Sandman, but was a DC Comics heroine that went by the name of the Fury.  A title she inherited from her mother, (though in a bit of confusing crisis muddled continuity, she was also Earth Two Wonder Woman’s daughter).

Poor Lyta did not have an easy time of things in the series.  She was married to the second DC hero to carry the title of the Sandman.  Both she and her husband Hector, were unknowingly tricked by a pair of renegade dreams, into being trapped inside a child’s dreams.  To make matters worse, her husband Hector was dead, but being stuck in the Dreaming, neither of them knew this.  And on top of that Lyta was heavily pregnant when she was trapped, and remained so for the whole two years, that she was stuck there.  When Morpheus discovered what had been done by the misbehaving dreams, he put end to it, setting the Halls free.  This however effectively killed Hector.  He was already dead, but freed from the dreaming, his spirit was allowed to move on.  Lyta of course had no idea what had happened, she just saw her husband disappear, and her world dissolve.  Morpheus, not being very sensitive to other being’s distress, didn’t bother to explain any of it to her.  Which left her with a mighty grudge against Morpheus.  One that was easily exploited by those who wished him ill.

I would cast her with Amber Benson.

She was excellent as the lovely Tara on Buffy.  She is also a talented writer and director, who has made several independent films, and published quite a few fantasy books.  She would be able to sympathetically play Lyta’s rage at the powerlessness she has over her life, even while becoming more of a pawn.

I think the next post will be the last in this series.

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One Response to “Dream Casting, Sandman Casting Call Part 14: Maiden, Mother, Crone, and Crazed Agent of Vengeance. Yay!”

  1. Florence Says:

    There should be no end to this series!