Contemporary Monologues for Women

by Trilby James

  WHAT SHE WANTS

  •

  To rejoice in her situation.

  •

  To bask in the thrill of the moment.

  •

  To savour having been wanted and desired.

  •

  To justify her actions and to explain her lack of regret.

  •

  To punish her partner for having ignored her.

  KEYWORDS power thrill traitor saliva enjoy invisible

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

  Astrid

  People talk about guilt as if it’s an instinct. That the second you do something wrong, you feel guilty. I don’t; what I’m feeling is power. You always join the story at the bit where they’re sorry, when they’re desperately begging for forgiveness; but there’s something before that, there’s now. In the space after the act and before the consequences, when you’ve got away with it; when you’re walking out of an unknown door, back down unknown streets and it’s still thumping in you – dawn’s breaking, dew’s settling and you’re skipping back home, flying on the thrill of it, you can taste it. Even back here, the quiet click of the door, the tiptoe in – the alcohol’s wearing off too quickly, I want it back – our bed and all the stuff that makes up life, our life – and – I don’t feel like a traitor; I can lie here whilst another man’s saliva dries off my lips and I can remember another man’s face bearing over me – and I enjoy it, I enjoy that all this seems new again.

  His alarm’s going off in ten minutes. He’ll roll over and grunt, curl himself round me like a monkey with its bloody mum. Just like every morning. He won’t notice that anything’s different – he won’t see that I have mascara down my face or that my hair is wet, because I’ve been running in the rain to get back before he wakes up, he won’t notice that I haven’t been here, that I’m drunk, no – for him, I became invisible a long time ago.

  Fair

  Joy Wilkinson

  WHO Melanie, twenty-one, middle class, from a town in Lancashire.

  TO WHOM Her reflection in the river.

  WHERE The river by the fairground in a Lancashire town.

  WHEN Around the time the play was produced in 2005. There are references to ‘the war’, which we take to be the war in Iraq, and to race riots reminiscent of those in Burnley in 2001.

  WHAT HAS JUST HAPPENED At the very start of the play Melanie meets Railton (a twenty-two-year-old working-class lad from the same town in Lancashire) upside down on the Revolution ride at the fair. She goes back to his house, where they get stoned and, it is suggested, have sex. Later the same night, Railton is visited by the ghost of his father. Railton tells him about Melanie. His father is unimpressed and warns him: ‘Don’t you go getting distracted, you’ve got stuff to do. Important stuff.’ In the morning, Melanie leaves without waking Railton, who has no idea where she has gone or how to contact her. Melanie, who has been to university in London and has recently returned from a trip to India and Tibet (where she was dumped by her boyfriend), is working as a community liaison officer. She is involved in a project to produce a multicultural fair that will celebrate the town’s diversity one year on from local race riots. As she is about to chair a community meeting, Railton enters. She has not seen him since that night and is shocked to discover that he has come to the hall to represent a group called FAIR. ‘Fighting Anti-White Racism’. It is an offshoot of the BNP, and its members are regarded by many as racist thugs. Railton’s father, who died following an attack on his property by a gang of Asians, was a well-known campaigner. Melanie is disgusted and wants nothing to do with Railton. Later, when she suspects she might be pregnant by her ex-boyfriend, who is Asian, she buys a pregnancy test from the local chemist. Here in this monologue she has gone to the river. She is clutching the test in her fist and is staring at her reflection.

  WHAT TO CONSIDER

  •

  The pregnancy test is positive. In the penultimate scene of the play Melanie is revealed in a hospital cubicle changing into her clothes under a hospital gown. We assume she has had an abortion.

  •

  The ‘we’ to which she refers is her and her ex-boyfriend. Decide to what extent she is talking to him and then back to herself.

  •

  Might she have been ‘hated’ so much because she was a white woman accompanied by an Asian man? It may be argued that in parts of India, as in certain parts of Britain, mixed-race couples are regarded with suspicion.

  •

  Melanie gains a first-class honours degree, she is a vegetarian and has left-wing leanings.

  •

  She finds it difficult to communicate with her father, who is the Principal at the local college and a Tory.

  •

  The social and political background. Familiarise yourself with the racial tensions as experienced by the communities of towns such as Burnley and Oldham.

  WHAT SHE WANTS

  •

  To understand her restlessness and to figure out what it is she wants.

  •

  To find a sense of belonging.

  •

  To figure out how and when she fell pregnant. Note how in the final sentence she uses humour to cope with the magnitude of her situation.

  KEYWORDS healed saved sick beggars grabbing staring hated homesick crap shits

  Melanie

  We went to the Kumbh Fair in Varanasi, this massive festival where millions of Hindus go to bathe in the Ganges. Lepers go to get healed, pilgrims go to get saved, I went to get… I don’t know. I didn’t know what I wanted to do since uni and we weren’t getting on. The trip was supposed to sort all that out, but it was making things worse. Everywhere we went did my head in. It all looked so beautiful to start with, but once you’d been there a day or two it didn’t look so nice any more. There were so many sick people, beggars, poor little kids, grabbing my skirt, my bag, men staring at me. I felt like they hated me for being there, for being, I don’t know. For being… me. I wasn’t me. It didn’t seem real. It was like I wasn’t really there. I felt homesick. I don’t know where for. I kept thinking I’d be alright in the next place, and the next and the next, but we never got there. Then we got to Varanasi and I thought, this is it. Something real will happen to me here. And it really fucking did. The river was full of crap from factories and it gave me the shits for weeks.

  Fast Labour

  Steve Waters

  WHO Anita, mid-twenties, Scottish.

  TO WHOM Victor (her lover), Andrius and Alexei, all of whom are migrant workers from Eastern Europe.

  WHERE The living room of a house in King’s Lynn, Norfolk.

  WHEN Present day.

  WHAT HAS JUST HAPPENED Anita met Victor at a fish-processing factory in Scotland where he was working illegally, along with Andrius and Alexei. She was in charge of Human Resources. Some months later, Anita decides to quit her job and, on the evening before she hands in her notice, she invites Victor back to her flat where they sleep together. However, he leaves early the next morning without any word. Unbeknownst to Anita, Grimmer, an Englishman and one of the gang masters who organises these rings of workers, moves the three men on to Norfolk where they take up work as farm labourers. As time goes by, Victor (who ran a sausage factory in his native Ukraine) realises that he could be doing exactly what Grimmer does and, although it is illegal, goes about setting up a ‘recruitment agency’ that places migrant workers in casual labour. With a very strong Eastern European accent he feels he is likely to scare off any potential business, and so he contacts Anita, whom he persuades to work for him, in the hope that she will give the business a legitimate front. They become lovers again. Andrius is concerned that Victor has not been altogether honest with Anita (‘She any idea how fifty Ukranian students end up on a ship of the line bound for Felixstowe?’), and that, when she finds out about the full extent of their illegal practices and that Victor is married with two daughters, she will betray them. Here in this spee
ch Anita tells the men that she knows exactly what is going on.

  WHAT TO CONSIDER

  •

  Anita is in love with Victor.

  •

  At this point she is still ignorant about his wife and daughters. So far he has kept that from her. Read the play to find out what happens when she meets his wife.

  •

  Anita is a trusting and honest person. Decide to what extent her love for Victor has coloured her judgement.

  •

  The play centres around the exploitation of the vulnerable and the needy. The men feel as though they have sold a part of themselves. To what extent does Anita feel equally used, by a man who has never been entirely straight with her?

  •

  The death of her mother from breast cancer at an early age and her father’s ill health serve to compound her loneliness.

  WHAT SHE WANTS

  •

  To assert herself.

  •

  To show that she’s no fool.

  •

  To warn them.

  KEYWORDS (note how they are either wholesome or unwholesome) respectable law-abiding dole-dodging liberal carefree trust naive abuse dirty ugly cruel

  Anita

  Did I ever give you my CV? Don’t think so. Okay, here it is: born in a boringly respectable home. Dad on the boats, on the rigs, now he’s on incapacity benefit. Mum, a cleaner, paid cash in hand, died of breast cancer. Law-abiding, dole-dodging, ordinary people. Got my GCSEs and my Highers, did an extension course in Management which was bollocks, never been further afield than Portugal. That’s me. Hardly worldly-wise. But no fool neither.

  I know we’re taking a liberal approach to the law here; I know our workers don’t swan in on Eurostar, don’t breeze through customs with a carefree smile; I know most of the money we make’ll not pass through the hands of Inland Revenue. And I can’t even believe I am saying this, even as I say it: I know what’s going on.

  And maybe I am mad, but I trust you to do this the way it has to be done, right. ’Cos I know for a fact it’ll happen whether we do it or not and I guess I’m naive enough to believe you care more, ’cos you know more, ’cos you’ve been where these guys have been. And if we can do this better, cleaner and get a roof over our heads and have a wee laugh along the way, you know, I am totally utterly with you.

  But if you abuse my trust – if you make this something dirty, something ugly, something cruel – I will walk out and I will not look back. Yeah?

  So stick me on your letterhead, your website, your whatever. ’Cos the real question isn’t, ‘What do I know?’, but, ‘What does Grimmer know?’

  Gilt

  Stephen Greenhorn, Rona Munro and Isabel Wright

  WHO Jo, a teenager, Scottish.

  TO WHOM We can assume from her last line: ‘Eh… how much did you say I’d get for this?’, that she is talking to a journalist.

  WHERE Unspecified. Perhaps a café, an office of a newspaper building, or Jo’s own home – you decide.

  WHEN Present day.

  WHAT HAS JUST HAPPENED Jo met Mick, a well-known TV presenter in his late forties, in a nightclub. She had no idea at the time who he was and only finds out when he takes her back to his hotel. While there he plies her with booze and drugs, and they end up sleeping together. When Jo phones Mick to arrange another meeting, he is convinced that she intends to blackmail him: ‘TV star in underage drug orgy,’ as he puts it. But Jo has actually fallen for Mick and is disappointed at his reaction. However, when he gives her a bag of fifty thousand pounds in used banknotes in order to be rid of her, she accepts the money. She is poor and living in squalor. This amount is a fortune to her. What she doesn’t know, however, is that at the bottom of the bag is a note from Mick explaining that all the money is stolen and that as soon as she starts to spend it the police will be on to her. The note also says that if she wants to meet with him, he will exchange it for legal tender as long as she agrees to do anything he wants to her. But she never finds out because, having booked into a room in the same hotel where Mick is staying, a fire breaks out and all the money is destroyed. Mick also dies in the blaze. Jo’s speech comes at the very end of the play and takes the form of an interview about Mick’s death.

  WHAT TO CONSIDER

  •

  The play follows the stories of seven people whose lives are strangely interwoven. Read it to understand fully the intricacies of its plot and themes.

  •

  Jo is sexually precocious but innocent and naive in her understanding of things.

  •

  She comes from a violent home and hasn’t been back in over a year. She has been living with Chris, who is equally damaged and helpless.

  WHAT SHE WANTS

  •

  To better herself.

  •

  To show that she is not just a child.

  •

  Attention.

  •

  Money. Decide how cynical you think Jo is being or whether she believes in all that she is saying.

  KEYWORDS shame gutted different imagination really like slag

  Jo

  I think it’s a shame. I was gutted when I heard. I mean, I’ve been wi older men before but he was different. He was really old. Thing was though he didn’t treat me like a wee kid. I think he knew I had an ancient soul. So he knew he could do things as if I was a real woman, you know? And he didnae chuck me out right after. He let me hang about for a wee while. Have a fag and that. That was nice.

  And he was good, you know. He wasnae quick. He was at me for fucking hours. Doing allsorts. He had a really good imagination. I like that. Don’t know how I kept up but. No like I’m Ginger Spice or anything. All the yoga n’ that. I was completely fucked. I think it was only the charlie that kept me going.

  That was another thing. He was really generous. I mean really generous. He let me have as much as a wanted. Didnae bother him. He had loads. No shite either. Really good stuff. He said it was to do wi his job but I wasnae really listening.

  See I never knew who he was. I think he liked that. That’s what he said anyway. Said it gave us something in common.

  Yeah. Would’ve been nice to see him again but I think he was dead busy. And now he’s just… well…

  That’s how I wanted to say. So folk would know what he was like. What he was really like. So they wouldnae just slag him off.

  I really, really liked him.

  Pause.

  Eh… how much did you say I’d get for this?

  Girls and Dolls

  Lisa McGee

  WHO Emma, Northern Irish, Catholic, thirties in the play (but given that she is talking about herself as a child, she could be played by a younger actress).

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

  WHERE ‘The railings’ at the bottom of the street where Emma lived as a child.

  WHEN Present day, but recalling an incident that took place in the summer of 1980.

  WHAT HAS JUST HAPPENED The play centres on the childhood friendship of Emma and Clare, who meet in the summer of 1980. It is the school holidays, and we follow their various escapades, from shoplifting to tree-house making. Then, when a young woman, Dervla, and her baby daughter, Shannon, move in across the street from Clare, the girls offer to babysit. But Clare soon becomes obsessed with Dervla and is distressed when she sees a strange man knocking on Dervla’s door. Clare’s mother then goes away for a week, leaving Clare alone with her father. Although it is never shown, there is the strong suggestion that Clare is sexually abused by him. This goes part way to explaining why, at the very end of the play, she kills baby Shannon.

  WHAT TO CONSIDER

  •

  The play is intended for two actors, who play both their older and younger selves as well as a host of other characters who make up the local community.

  •

  The play is set in Northern Ireland at the height of ‘The Troubles
’.

  •

  The speech has a subtlety and a poignancy that will be much enhanced by your reading of the play. For example, Emma’s use of the expression ‘Our lady wept a lot that week’ and the significance of ‘She was wearing two different socks’ and ‘Do you think they’ll fly over the rainbow?’ will all be made clearer.

  •

  Arguably, not a lot happens in the speech, but it remains an opportunity for the actor to show a depth of feeling and a level of sensitivity that such delicate writing demands. You may like to ‘personalise’ the character of Clare, so that she becomes very real to you. Have you had a similar friendship?

  WHAT SHE WANTS

  a) As an adult with hindsight:

  •

  To make sense of her friend’s behaviour. Decide to what extent Emma regards this incident as the first indication of Clare’s troubled state of mind.

  •

  To explain (although we the audience don’t know it yet) how Clare could have done what she did.

  b) As a child in the moment:

  •

  To comfort and to cajole her friend.

  KEYWORDS wept miserable pissing rain ash smoke

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

  Emma

  Our lady wept a lot that week. The week her mother left, it was a miserable one. Pissing with rain but still hot. I didn’t see much of Clare at all, I don’t think she was allowed out, you know, because of the rain. Then I was up tidying my room – well, you know, pushing things into my cupboard – and I stopped to look out the window. There she was. Sitting on the railings at the bottom of the street, on her own, just sitting there. She was wearing two different socks, it was obvious they were different as well, one was red and the other was yellow. I went out to her, I had my father’s coat with me and I held it over both our heads. I didn’t ask her why she was out in the rain, I didn’t ask her why she had no coat on, or why she was wearing two different socks. I just started talking, I told her about my Aunt Rita, saying she had this great surprise for me, which turned out to be a statue of the Virgin Mary that glows in the dark. About me bouncing on my bed, breaking three springs, and trying to hide the evidence. Sometimes she’d smile or nod, sometimes she would laugh or say ‘Really?’ but I don’t know if she was listening. So when I’d ran out of things to tell her, I just sat there, swinging my legs, beside her, on the railings, in the rain. Then I saw what she’d been looking at, on the telephone wires, above the street – rows and rows of birds who’d been sitting to attention, were beginning to fly away and her eyes were following them. She watched them moving off into the distance, and I turned to her and said, ‘Do you think they’ll fly over the rainbow?’And she said, ‘No, they’re not bluebirds.’ But she never took her eyes off them, then she stood up, she stood up and quietly, almost under her breath said, ‘You know, from here, they look just like tiny little pieces of ash, and the sky, the sky looks like smoke.’