Contemporary Monologues for Women

by Trilby James

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  The speech serves to fill in the backstory for the audience and allows us to view the main action with a greater degree of understanding. In this sense, Scarlet becomes more than just a character. She is also the ‘storyteller’. Make a decision about why she personally needs to tell us these things (might it be to do with her loneliness? Or the fact that her parents never listened to her or took her seriously?) so that the speech is triggered by a strong need on her part (and not just there to beef up the story).

  WHAT SHE WANTS

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  To shed some light on her relationship and shared history with Lucy and Mick.

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  To recall and describe her complete loss of innocence.

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  To explain her cynicism.

  KEYWORDS (there are many) crap bullying bastard repulsive lizard black anger despising darkness/dark hole

  NB This play offers a number of other speeches from which to choose.

  Scarlet

  Lucy and I used to play Crap Family Poker. Lucy would call a Bullying-Father and a Mother-On-Valium, and I’d match her Mother-On-Valium and raise her a Bastard-Stepfather-Who-Charges-Me-Rent. Although, when I was thirteen he put it up to more than I could earn with a Saturday job, so […] I went to live with Lucy.

  It was a funny set-up. Mick was never there or when he was he was just drunk the whole time […] and Lucy’s mum, Geraldine, was always round the cooker as if for warmth […] or whispering into the phone – obviously having an affair […]

  Lucy and I were not exactly your well-adjusted teenagers at the time. She was in her gothic we’re-all-going-to-die-of-AIDS phase and I was just more interested in… planting a bomb in my mother’s tampon, I suppose.

  We’d pass on the landing in the mornings, me on my way to be sick after binge-eating too much cereal, and her on her way to steal money from her dad’s wallet.

  Lucy hated Mick. Or rather, I think she tried to hate him because he never really took any notice of her. Except to say ‘Don’t like boys too much, you’re better off on your own’. I think she thought it was her fault somehow. Then she found his stash of porn magazines that were full of tall, pouty women with big tits and somehow took it as an explanation […] so Lucy would steal his money, and then she’d go on huge shopping sprees and buy… oh I don’t know… clothes… Mostly she never wore them or she’d just throw them away […]

  So this one morning Lucy’s in a snit because her dad’s got up early for once, avec wallet, so she comes downstairs for breakfast but her dad bangs into her and tells her she can’t come down like that – what if one of his friends came round?

  Course, Mick’s just freaked out at having a teenage daughter on the loose with no knickers on, no matter how long her dressing gown is, but Lucy immediately takes it as final proof that she’s too repulsive to be seen in public, so she comes running back upstairs and shoves her face in a line of my speed to take the edge off things.

  I thought of going to her, but at that point I was still cross because she’d shrunk my new top so…

  Anyway, so the big scene between Lucy and Mick gives Geraldine the perfect excuse to pick a fight so she can nip out for a quick one, so she throws a hissy fit […] and storms out, saying she’s had enough of the lot of them and isn’t ever coming back. Which starts Lucy off crying and screaming and…

  Which, of course, is really hard to wank through, so I finally give up and come out onto the landing to see if I can help. I bump into a lodger, a grey-skinned man with eyes like a lizard, carrying a suitcase. He tells me he’s leaving. All this shouting is too much to put up with. […] I see him look me up and down, and I know what he’s thinking. And Geraldine’s been good to me and she needs the money.

  Penises are strange. On one level, mechanics. But on the other, a manifest wanting of me. And it’s the wanting that sucks me in, holding it up to the light like a marble, to look at, in awe, this penis-shaped wanting of me.

  And while he grunts in the darkness, lost in his skin, I gaze at my marble. And later, I have black acorns in my stomach, acorns of anger and despising how easily that desire for me was sated. And I plant them and watch them grow into big dark trees hiding me from the light.

  Downstairs the front door goes as Geraldine comes back. The grey-skinned lodger strokes my skin, eyeing up the one remaining hole he hasn’t been in. ‘You dirty girl,’ he whispers. ‘You’ve got “Fuck me” written all over you. You want me in here, don’t you?’ ‘Yes,’ I lie. But what I’m really thinking is, it’s seven o’clock. Which means I’ve missed dinner.

  Apologia

  Alexi Kaye Campbell

  WHO Claire, thirties, an actress.

  TO WHOM Kristin, sixties, an art historian and the mother of Claire’s boyfriend, Simon.

  WHERE The kitchen of Kristin’s cottage somewhere in the English countryside.

  WHEN Present day.

  WHAT HAS JUST HAPPENED Kristin is a celebrated art historian. She holds strong feminist and left-wing views and throughout her adult life has been a staunch campaigner and political activist. She has recently published a book of memoirs but has omitted to mention that she has two sons. When Peter, her eldest, and then Simon, her youngest, arrive to celebrate her birthday, the now grown-up men confront their mother about the way in which she has neglected them. Claire, Simon’s girlfriend, is an actress. She has a regular part in a popular television series that Kristin regards as ‘the biggest pile of putrid shite I have ever seen in my life’. During the course of the evening, Kristin goads Claire, criticising her about the vacuousness of her professional and personal choices. Claire is wearing a dress that cost seven hundred pounds. Trudi, Peter’s girlfriend, accidentally spills red wine on it. Here, the morning after, Claire confronts Kristin. She and Simon are splitting up and she wants to say goodbye. The following speech is made up of Claire’s part of their conversation.

  WHAT TO CONSIDER

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  Claire has had to turn down theatre work in order to appear in the soap. Decide to what extent her ‘artist’ self feels compromised by her decision to make money and by her desire for fame.

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  She insists the series is ‘a clever and profound piece of television’. Is that what she really thinks?

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  She drives a BMW and wears designer clothes.

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  She has been cheating on Simon.

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  The courage it might take, talking to Kristin in this way.

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  The jump from: ‘How do you do that?’ to: ‘Did I ever tell you about my father?’ needs a quick change of thought. In the unedited text it is also quite sudden, and only separated by Kristin saying: ‘I really wouldn’t know.’

  WHAT SHE WANTS

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  To assert herself and to defend herself from Kristin’s attack.

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  To explain her past in order to justify her present.

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  To reveal to Kristin the truth about her (Kristin’s) limitations.

  KEYWORDS stifled blood stains carapace demonise vilify scrutinise condemn

  Claire

  I don’t think I’ll be seeing you again. […] So I thought it only right to say goodbye. Consider it a mark of respect.

  Pause.

  I don’t know what you and Simon talked about last night. But when he came back to the room he woke me up and we chatted till dawn. You’ll be happy to hear we’ve decided to part ways. […] Don’t flatter yourself into believing that it was your doing. It was inevitable. We’ve just been putting it off, that’s all. I’m surprised we lasted for a year and a half. […] He said he realised the only reason he was attracted to me was because I was the polar opposite of you. […] It’s funny. When you said last night that you thought I was good in A Doll’s House, my heart missed a beat. I nearly leapt for joy. How do you do that? […] Did I ever tell you about my father? […] I watched him slowly drown in a mountai
n of unpaid bills. When I was thirteen he was declared bankrupt. I used to come home every day after school and the bathroom door was always closed and the sound was always the same – the sound of my mother’s stifled sobs. Then she’d come out with a smile on her face and cook dinner. One day, he left and never came back. My mother and I moved to a small rented flat and lived on benefits. The first day I moved my bed and there was a whole lot of blood on the wall. I spent all my time in that flat wondering what had happened before we arrived. I came up with quite a few upsetting scenarios. I had a vivid imagination.

  Pause.

  Since then most of my life I’ve been running away from unpaid bills, stifled sobs and those dark-red stains. That may have affected some of my artistic choices.

  Pause.

  That’s my individual story. But something tells me that somewhere along the line you’ve stopped listening to people’s individual stories. I wonder when that happened.

  Pause. She waits for something from KRISTIN but nothing comes.

  There’s a part of me that admires you. The way you’ve held onto the things you’ve believed in. But your idealism has turned into hardness, Kristin. It has a thick, thick shell. You do. A carapace. Isn’t that the word? […] ‘Why does she demonise me like that?’ I kept asking myself. ‘Why does she vilify me? Why does she scrutinise everything I do and then condemn it without a second thought?’ […] And then I decided it’s got nothing to do with me really. It’s not about me. […] It’s about you, Kristin. […] When I was in my room last night I had a little bit of a revelation. […] They say, don’t they, that when people get older they just become worse versions of themselves. […] Maybe in some people that’s a little more pronounced. […] And I expect it’s really a case of having to hold onto everything you are. Everything you were. The choices you made, the paths you followed. Because if you start to question them, if you start to doubt them… well, then you’re fucked really, aren’t you? […] So you hang on with every fibre of your being.

  Pause.

  It must be exhausting being you.

  August: Osage County

  Tracy Letts

  WHO Jean, fourteen, Midwestern American.

  TO WHOM Johnna, housekeeper, twenty-six, Native American.

  WHERE The attic room of Jean’s grandparents house in Oklahoma.

  WHEN August 2007.

  WHAT HAS JUST HAPPENED The speech comes near the beginning of the play. Jean’s grandfather Beverly has gone missing. Family members including Barbara and Bill, Jean’s parents, return with Jean to the family home to help out. Before he went, Beverly employed Johnna to work as housekeeper. She is sleeping in the attic where Jean used to stay when she came to visit. Now Jean is sleeping next to her grandmother Violet’s room. Jean wants to smoke pot and the attic room is the safest place.

  WHAT TO CONSIDER

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  Jean is fourteen, but when asked she lies and says she is fifteen. To what extent has she lost her innocence?

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  She is an only child and the only grandchild of Beverly and Violet. How lonely is she?

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  Her eccentricity. She is a film buff and loves old black-and-white movies. She is a vegetarian.

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  She likes to shock, but it is important to note that the use of ‘bad language’ is common in the family.

  •

  Make a decision about whether you will mime smoking the pipe, or use a real object (see note on using props in the introduction). Remember, that owing to our public smoking ban, you will have to pretend to light and smoke it.

  WHAT SHE WANTS

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  To dull her pain. To what extent does Jean use pot as a way of avoiding her unhappy feelings?

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  Company. Johnna is the closest person in age to her. Note how quick she is to talk about her parents and all that is aggravating her.

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  To prove that she is mature and that she can cope with all that is happening. To what extent is this a front?

  KEYWORDS bugging trouble sweating bad cool uncool dicks fucking turd sucks hawk freak-out addict shoot

  Jean

  Hi. […] Am I bugging you? […] No, I thought maybe you’d like to smoke a bowl with me? […] Okay. I didn’t know. Am I bugging you? […] Okay. Do you mind if I smoke a bowl? […] ’Cause there’s no place I can go. Y’know, I’m staying right by Grandma’s room, and if I go outside, they’re gonna wonder – […] Mom and Dad don’t mind. You won’t get into trouble or anything. […] Okay. You sure?

  From her pocket, JEAN takes a small glass pipe and a clear cigarette wrapper holding a bud of marijuana. She fixes the pipe.

  I say they don’t mind. If they knew I stuck this bud under the cap of Dad’s deodorant before our flight and then sat there sweating like in that movie Maria Full of Grace. Did you see that? […] I just mean they don’t mind that I smoke pot. Dad doesn’t. Mom kind of does. She thinks it’s bad for me. I think the real reason it bugs her is ’cause Dad smokes pot, too, and she wishes he didn’t. Dad’s much cooler than Mom, really. Well, that’s not true. He’s just cooler in that way, I guess.

  JEAN smokes. She offers the smouldering pipe to JOHNNA.

  (Holding her breath.) You sure? […] No, he’s really not cooler. (Exhales smoke.) He and Mom are separated right now. […] He’s fucking one of his students which is pretty uncool, if you ask me. Some people would think that’s cool, like those dicks who teach with him in the Humanities Department because they’re all fucking their students or wish they were fucking their students. ‘Lo-liii-ta.’ I mean, I don’t care and all, he can fuck whoever he wants and he’s a teacher and that’s who teachers meet, students. He was just a turd the way he went about it and didn’t give Mom a chance to respond or anything. What sucks now is that Mom’s watching me like a hawk, like, she’s afraid I’ll have some post-divorce freak-out and become some heroin addict or shoot everybody at school. Or God forbid, lose my virginity. I don’t know what it is about Dad splitting that put Mom on hymen patrol. Do you have a boyfriend? […] Me neither. I did go with this boy Josh for like almost a year but he was retarded. Are your parents still together? […] Oh. I’m sorry. […] Oh, fuck, no, I’m really sorry, I feel fucking terrible now. […] Oh God. Okay. Were you close with them? […] Okay, another stupid question there, Jean, real good. Wow. Like: ‘Are you close to your parents?’ […] Yeah, right? So that’s what I meant. Thanks.

  NB You will have to imagine Johnna’s responses to Jean’s two questions,‘Are your parents still together?’ and ‘Were you close with them?’, in order for the speech to flow. Where there are now brackets […] to denote a cut, the unedited text reads as follows:

  JEAN. Are your parents still together?

  JOHNNA. They passed away.

  JEAN. Oh. I’m sorry.

  JOHNNA. That’s okay. Thank you.

  JEAN. Oh, fuck, no, I’m really sorry, I feel fucking terrible now.

  JOHNNA. It’s okay.

  JEAN. Oh God. Okay. Were you close with them?

  JOHNNA. Yeah.

  JEAN. Okay, another stupid question there, Jean, real good. Wow. Like: ‘Are you close to your parents?’

  JOHNNA. Not everybody is.

  JEAN. Yeah, right? So that’s what I meant. Thanks.

  bedbound

  Enda Walsh

  WHO Daughter, a young woman, crippled, from Cork, in Southern Ireland.

  TO WHOM Herself.

  WHERE Her bed. In a house in Cork, Ireland.

  WHEN Present day.

  WHAT HAS JUST HAPPENED The play tells the story of the relationship between a daughter, crippled by polio, and her father, a furniture salesman and psychotic murderer. They speak from a small child’s bed, which they share. The bed is surrounded by plasterboard walls that the father erected after his daughter contracted the polio. At the very start of the play the wall closest to the audience falls away, thus inviting us into their world. While the main thrust of the
father’s conversation is about his past achievements and then thwarted ambitions, the daughter speaks to shut out the terrifying silence in her head. Here in this speech she recalls the day she contracted the polio.

  WHAT TO CONSIDER

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  The play’s themes are dark and its content brutal. Read it to understand fully the relationship between father and daughter and to experience the surprise tenderness of its ending.

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  The style is heightened and non-naturalistic. The language, poetic.

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  The daughter’s physicality. Make a decision about how you will portray her handicap. We also know from the stage directions that ‘her face is filthy, her hair tangled and manky’.

  •

  Of all the daughter’s speeches, this is the most simple and clear, reflecting a time in her life when the world was relatively normal.

  •

  Her mother is dead. We presume she has been killed by the father.

  WHAT SHE WANTS

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  To shut out her father’s presence.

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  To relive a time when she was just an ordinary little girl.

  •

  To remember her mother.

  •

  To escape momentarily the madness of her present situation.

  KEYWORDS (there are many) fire shimmering tippled scrunched squeezed healthy crippled sucked squatted squished spitting springing shit puke mad

  Daughter

  I’ll speak the only thing that’s clear to me just ta shut you out. I remember I fire meself out of this bed and sling my ten-year-old bikini on.