Contemporary Monologues for Women

by Trilby James

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  The ‘story’ is told in the present tense as if it were happening to her now. This creates dramatic tension. When she steps out of the narrative to recall other events, she reverts to the past tense. Whichever passage from the play you choose to perform, make a decision about where you might be. See yourself on the street as she describes it or (later on in her story) in the car, at the butcher’s, in the stranger’s house, etc. You might like to imagine that the passages delivered in the past tense are told from a different location. Perhaps from the comfort of her bedroom.

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  It is hot weather. How does this influence her behaviour? What effect does it have on the men around her?

  WHAT SHE WANTS

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  Attention.

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  To shock us with her lack of political correctness. Throughout the play Katie uses language and expresses opinions that are designed to provoke a reaction. To what extent do you think she enjoys playing the rebel?

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  To show how adult and mature she is. She is very frank about her sexual exploits, even her failures.

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  To create an impression that she is tough, and that she doesn’t give a damn. To what extent is this a front? A way of talking and being that shields her vulnerability? Note how she uses humour to laugh off otherwise painful experiences.

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  To figure out who she is and what it is she wants, independently of her parents, boyfriend, friends and teachers. Note how she describes herself as ‘the unfit fitter’.

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  To shake off the schoolgirl and to become a woman.

  KEYWORDS gratitude awesome friend/friends unfit Illustrative funny complicated

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

  Katie

  I used to have a fat friend. Sheridan. Named after a Sheffield Wednesday footballer – and they wondered why she ate? Bulimia in the end. She got hospitalised once she turned yellow. Then they moved her from the school – when she got out – of hospital – because they wanted to ‘change her routine’ and they weren’t sure our school was a ‘healthy environment’. Like any school is a healthy environment. But I did like watching her eat. With every mouthful you just saw this look of pure gratitude crossing her face – like – I can’t believe I’m getting to eat this… this is awesome.

  I say ‘friend’. She wasn’t really. My friends are different. I’m – difficult to explain without sounding thick – but me and her don’t fit like that. Not that I fit anywhere. I’m the unfit fitter. I don’t fit. But not in a bad way. Just in a – way. To give an instance – and this is true – and very very illustrative – everyone came to my eighteenth-birthday party – I mean, every single one of the twenty-five I invited – and all were important – but also everyone left my birthday party – every single one of the twenty-five – at 10.30 p.m.

  Which is not a normal time to leave any birthday party, I know. And that’s what I mean about…

  But they were bored and it was quite shit and they thought it’d be quite funny to leave, and it sort of was, you know? Funny. Still quite an embarrassing one to explain to your parents. Where are all your friends? Um. Hiding. No. They’ve gone. Obviously. Where have they gone? Um. Home. Probably. Why? Why have they gone? Turn. Look parents in the eye. Because this was pointless. I basically turned it all on them. Which was fair enough. They’d made some effort. But the wrong effort. And so had I. I mean, it was mostly my fault. There was booze – but there were too many snacks and not enough Ann Summers’ toys or something. I don’t know.

  Anyway, it’s not as bad as it sounds…

  Still. Mum apologised a week later for it being crap. But she didn’t do it well enough. So I stole her wallet. She spent ages looking for it. ‘I know I must have left it somewhere.’ Turned the house upside down. Had to cancel all her cards. And being Mum and slightly overcautious about most things, cancelling all her cards included cancelling her library card – ‘I just don’t want to accrue unnecessary fines, that’s all.’ She said.

  I put it in her sock drawer two days later. Minus one pound fifty exactly just to see if she’d notice. She didn’t. She was pleased. To get it back.

  Anyway, that’s… what’s complicated. That’s part of my resettlement software.

  Abe didn’t come to the party. We’d only been together six weeks then – he decided it’d be too much of a ‘thing’. That’s when we had sex actually. That night. After he decided he couldn’t come to my birthday party because it was too much of a commitment I decided that I’d give him my Virginia County.

  Cockroach

  Sam Holcroft

  WHO Mmoma, teenager, black, born in Britain to Nigerian parents.

  TO WHOM A soldier’s uniform that she pretends is a real man. WHERE A classroom in a school.

  WHEN Present day or possibly the near future, as the country is at war.

  WHAT HAS JUST HAPPENED Lee, Leah, Danielle, Davey and Mmoma are all in detention. Their exams are coming up in four weeks, and their teacher Beth is determined to use the time for biology revision. Every afternoon, once school has finished, the five gather in the classroom where they learn about evolution, genetic variation and natural selection. Outside there is a war raging and young men are being called up to join the army. Two weeks later, the school is put forward by the headmistress to help with the war effort, and boxes of soldiers’ uniforms arrive to be recycled. Mmoma is desperate for a boyfriend. She has already tried unsuccessfully to get off with Lee and Davey (who are going out with Leah and Danielle respectively) but, due to the conflict, there are fewer and fewer young men around.‘Where am I going to get a boyfriend from? There’s, like, three girls to every one boy left in this school.’The next best thing is the soldier’s uniform which Mmoma hangs on a line and then talks to as if ‘he’ were real.

  WHAT TO CONSIDER

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  Mmoma feels herself to be the outsider. She is the only black person in the group and the only one without a boyfriend or girlfriend. She is terrified of insignificance.

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  Her hormones are raging and she is eager for sex.

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  She is provocative and flirtatious.

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  Despite being in detention she is a diligent student. We know from Beth that she is intelligent, inquisitive and could be a scientist. Interestingly, Mmoma wants to be a musician and singer. To what extent is this to do with her need for attention?

  WHAT SHE WANTS

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  To be noticed.

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  To be wanted.

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  To feel special.

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  To be made love to and to be loved.

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  To satisfy her physical and emotional hunger.

  KEYWORDS exotic wide sweet big blush beautiful strong black belly gut head

  Mmoma

  What? […]

  My name?

  Oh. Um. Mmoma.

  Mmoma Ejiofor.

  Oh, thank you. Yes, it is exotic. Nigerian. Africa.

  The great wide Africa.

  No, I never been. But. I’m going to. Going to go to Nigeria, Africa. Step off the plane and be like, ‘I’m home…’

  What was that? Oh, you think so? You’re sweet.

  What my, my eyes? Yes, they are big.

  She touches her hair.

  Oh, thank you. I had it done.

  She looks down at her body.

  Oh don’t, you’ll make me blush. Well, I do try to keep myself in shape. I don’t eat all junk and –

  She covers her behind, shocked.

  ’Scuse me, I don’t think you should even be looking there.

  Shame on you. What are you like?

  Tut. Tut. Tut.

  She turns away and surreptitiously shows him her bottom.

  Sorry, what was that?

  She turns back.

  No. I’m s
till at school.

  Why, did you think I was older?

  I get that a lot.

  I never get ID’d, never, not even at Price Smart on the High Street, and they’re, like, well strict –

  What, sorry?

  You what? You want to know everything?

  Everything there is to know? About me?

  Well. My gosh. Where to start…?

  What do I wanna be? When I grow up?

  I’m actually quite grown up already.

  But, when I leave school? Well. My mum wants me to be a doctor. Everyone wants me to try and get to be a doctor or a pharmacist or… But. Really. Deep, right deep down, in me. Is a singer!

  That’s right. I’m gonna be a musician!

  My inspiration?

  Shirley. Shirley Bassey: the most greatest singer that ever was!

  The most beautiful strong black British daughter-of-a-Nigerian singing woman – that is gonna be me!

  Dancing Bears, published in the volume Charged

  Sam Holcroft

  WHO Charity, fifteen.

  TO WHOM Aaron, her brother.

  WHERE Exact place unspecified, but ‘the stage floor is alive with red-hot coals’.

  WHEN Present day.

  WHAT HAS JUST HAPPENED Aaron, Charity’s brother, has been explaining to the audience why the Brazilians are so much better at football than the English. Then three other boys, first Dean, then Retard, and finally Angry, arrive on stage. They join in the chat about football, share a bottle of vodka, which dulls the pain of the red-hot coals underfoot, and are generally larking about. But when Angry tells the group about how a girl was violently raped things soon take a savage turn, and the boys start fighting over chicken nuggets, vying for position within the gang. Angry and Retard fight. As Angry releases Retard and Retard twists in pain, he (Retard) removes his sweat shirt ‘revealing the feminine curves of her body’. In this way, Retard becomes Charity, Aaron’s sister, and she has something she wants to tell him.

  WHAT TO CONSIDER

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  The main body of the speech is written and delivered in one. Where I have inserted […] two thirds down, is where the speech is supplemented by a passage picked up from another part of the play and joined together to make it longer.

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  The play is very physical. Dean, Retard and Angry all become girls who form a gang, much like that of the boys.

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  The play is part of a collection of six plays called Charged, and was commissioned by Clean Break theatre company, who work with women whose lives have been affected by the criminal justice system.

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  Both Charity and Aaron try to remain outside the gang. To what extent does this leave them weak and vulnerable to attack?

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  Make a decision about what the floor of red-hot coals might represent.

  WHAT SHE WANTS

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  To ensure that Aaron listens to the story of the baby fox. It has had a huge impact on her. Decide to what extent it is a metaphor for her own feelings of helplessness.

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  To figure out why it has affected her so much. Even the memory of watching a grown man being beaten to death has had less of an impact. Note how this bothers her. Decide to what extent she has become so brutalised that she is numb to certain events.

  KEYWORDS baby tiny jumped running blood stain wild twisted fire

  Charity

  Aaron? […] I was in a car at the traffic lights and I saw across the other side of the road a baby fox. […] It had run out from someone’s front garden and it was so tiny it could hardly walk on its little legs. […] But it bounded across the pavement like Bambi and ran into the road just as the lights changed and the car in front took off. […] And my heart, like, jumped into my throat all of a sudden but the car stopped and I thought, ‘Thank God, it’s stopped just in time,’ and I was waiting for it to run out the other side but I couldn’t see it and then the car in front swerved and drove around it and I could see that it was still running, the baby fox, but running on its side with his head now facing its tail and blood coming from its mouth with these wild, wild eyes. And though I only saw it for a second I can’t stop seeing the image in my mind. And when we drove past again on the way back it had gone, but there was a stain on the tarmac, like someone had been sick. […] The other day I watched a grown man get punched in the face till he was basically dead, and the only thing I can’t get out my mind is a baby fox that didn’t do nothing but run out into the road. I keep seeing it, running, you know, on its side, but it’s not the running, it’s not its twisted spine, it’s the eyes, Aaron, cos even though it was dying, even though its life was beaten out of it, its eyes… its eyes were on fire.

  Delirium

  Enda Walsh

  WHO Katerina, twenty-nine.

  TO WHOM Ivan, twenty-six.

  WHERE A room in Katerina’s house.

  WHEN Present day.

  WHAT HAS JUST HAPPENED Delirium is based on The Brothers Karamazov by Dostoyevsky. It follows the story of three brothers, Mitya, Ivan and Alyosha, and their dissolute father Fyodor. Mitya is engaged to be married to Katerina but is in love with his father’s whore Grushenka. Ivan meanwhile is besotted by Katerina, but his feelings are not reciprocated. Here, Katerina explains to Ivan that, even if Mitya breaks off their engagement to be with Grushenka, she will continue to adore him.

  WHAT TO CONSIDER

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  The heightened realism. The style of the play could be described as Expressionistic. The monologue is darkly comic. You can be bold therefore in your playing.

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  The play’s theatricality. Its use of multimedia, dance, song and puppetry.

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  Katerina has confused being in pain with being in love. Although the speech is comic, we are reminded of something very real and tragic about the way some women allow themselves to be abused.

  WHAT SHE WANTS

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  To find a purpose to her suffering and to exalt in it.

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  To find the words that best describe her experience.

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  To feel alive.

  KEYWORDS (there are many) gathering direction steer honour duty follow religion quest devotion charge vocation purpose

  Katerina

  Ivan. I’ve been trying to pull together the bits of me that have been lied to, been used, been betrayed. Tried to bundle up emotions that feel shredded, stamped on… It’s impossible for me to fully understand the extent of my suffering, but it exists and it needs gathering… it needs… ‘direction’, I call it. So I thought it was important to find some words that would steer me into and through this new direction. And the words that burned into me… that… in even saying these… and they are terribly old words, Ivan… but with these two words I can see a purpose to me… the words I see are ‘honour’ and ‘duty’. (Slight pause.) Honour this man. Never abandon this man. Even if this man hates me, betrays me, I will follow him always. And he may tell me to leave and I will leave but I will watch over this man all my life. And when he needs a friend, a sister, I will come to him and be his sister. This is my religion, my quest. He is my devotion. (Slight pause.) And even if… and I feel he may well do, Ivan… even if Mitya breaks our engagement and follows this bitch, Grushenka… honour and duty will guide me through any heartache, I’m sure of it. There is no heartache for me. Mitya is my charge, my vocation, my purpose. My whole life I will be a machine for his happiness. I will… […] I’m not explaining myself properly! You may think that I’m clinging on, that I still have hope, that I will only live if I feel that I am saving mine and Mitya’s romance. I mustn’t think about that now. I can’t think about that any more! I’m not thinking about that impossibly slim chance! So listen again. […] I will be the ground he walks on. I will be the steps he climbs, the door he opens, the hallway he enters, the banister he places his hand on. I will be the shirt he takes off, the rug the shirt has
fallen on. I will be the bed he lies on, the sheets that cover his back, the pillow his hand clenches in ecstasy, his toilet, the tissue paper he wipes himself with. The air Mitya breathes, the air that dries his brow. I am the ruffled bed he returns to from the bathroom. His darkness as he lies back beside Grushenka. A darkness that soothes his soul, that calms his breath, that finds him peace, that gives him sleep…

  Eight

  Ella Hickson

  WHO Astrid, early twenties.

  TO WHOM The audience (see note on ‘Direct audience address’ in the introduction).

  WHERE Her and her partner’s bedroom. Her partner is asleep in the bed.

  WHEN Present day.

  WHAT HAS JUST HAPPENED The speech is the beginning of a longer monologue in which Astrid contemplates the causes and ramifications of infidelity. She has just returned home after a night out, having slept with another man.

  WHAT TO CONSIDER

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  This is one of eight monologues that together form a full-length play.

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  As with the other characters in the series, Astrid has grown up in a culture that is primarily materialistic. As Ella Hickson writes in her introduction to the play, ‘a world in which the central value system is based on an ethic of commercial, aesthetic and sexual excess’.

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  Astrid is described as ‘slim and attractive, the kind of girl that seems comfortable in her own skin’.

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  She is a little drunk.