Contemporary Monologues for Women

by Trilby James

  •

  Sabine is competitive and ambitious. We know from Angelika that she has ‘climbed the ladder fast here’. Note how she describes her colleagues as ‘average’ or ‘very average’.

  •

  Status is important to her.

  •

  Her wardrobe is an outward manifestation of her position in the hierarchy, but it is also problematic for her. On the surface, she appears in control, but the trauma she experiences getting dressed in the morning shows her neurosis.

  •

  Angelika has a similar struggle and delivers a speech that, in places, echoes Sabine’s almost word for word. Power-dressing is an important part of this corporate world.

  WHAT SHE WANTS

  •

  To reveal the truth about herself. Note how different she is in this direct address to the audience compared to the way she is with Angelika.

  •

  To explain the monotony and loneliness of her life. For all her success, she feels left out. It pains her to think that she has gone without sex for two whole years when she is in her prime. She longs for intimacy.

  KEYWORDS cold nothing problem ordeal difficult dark awful ugly impossible terrible

  Sabine

  I haven’t had sex in two years. And I’m twenty-eight. I get up at six every morning. I take a cold shower and then I have breakfast. Usually fruit. In my dressing gown. While I watch TV. I do that every morning except Sunday. In the morning I watch TV from half past six until seven. The programme’s not very good at that time but I sit in front of the TV and think about nothing.

  Then I start to get dressed. I never wear the same thing as the day before. Never. Although my clothes often look similar. I have many clothes. Heaps. I chose my apartment with this in mind. Built-in cupboards. In my current flat there are two built-in cupboards.

  I can’t decide what to wear. It’s a problem. I often change my clothes completely several times over before I can decide what to wear. Until I’ve managed to make a decision. It’s not easy. It’s an ordeal.

  When I’m dressed I blow-dry my hair and put on make-up. My hairstyle is okay, there’s not much you can do with my hair. Make-up is difficult, especially in winter, when it’s still dark outside. Not too much. Just high-quality products. From Japan for example.

  Short pause.

  When I’ve done my face I take the lift to the basement garage. It’s eight o’clock now. Halfway down I stop and turn back. Go back up. Because I feel awful. I can’t stand it. I can’t stand it. I unlock the two safety locks to my apartment and get changed. I don’t like what I’m wearing. I usually wear blue. I don’t really like blue except maybe jeans or winter sweaters, but nonetheless I usually wear blue. I’ve taken to wearing everything in blue. To buy blue clothes when I have the time. Everything I buy is blue. So – everything’s colour coordinated.

  Nonetheless I turn around halfway down and get changed again. I change everything. My stockings, my knickers, my bra. I feel ugly. I have to hurry, the clock’s ticking, and I’m standing in front of the mirror in the hall feeling ugly.

  After a while it’s gone half past eight. It’s time, I need to go. Again I take the lift to the basement garage. Get into the car. I can’t turn back now. To turn back now is completely impossible. I look in the rear-view mirror. My make-up is terrible. I don’t like my lipstick. In the traffic jam on the circular I redo my lips. I can’t do my eyes until I’m in the office. Whatever you do, don’t look cheap.

  I arrive at the office and I feel like no one’s looking at me. That’s good. That’s awful.

  At nine fifteen I see my team. None of the women at the long table wear blue. Except for when they wear jeans or winter sweaters maybe, but you don’t see a lot of those here. In the meetings. Many of them are average. Very average. Most of them.

  None of them wear blue.

  Short pause.

  I look into the faces at the table and I ask myself which of them had sex last night, and how often. Or this morning. While I took a cold shower. While I watched TV and thought about nothing.

  All of them, I think. All of them except me.

  Rabbit

  Nina Raine

  WHO Bella, twenty-nine, middle class, works in PR.

  TO WHOM Her friends Emily and Sandy, and her ex-lovers Richard and Tom.

  WHERE The restaurant of a private members’ club, London.

  WHEN Present day (although strictly speaking before the public smoking ban of 2007).

  WHAT HAS JUST HAPPENED Bella is celebrating her twenty-ninth birthday with her two girlfriends Emily and Sandy, her ex-boyfriend Richard and ex-lover Tom, whom she has met by chance in the bar that night. Their conversation centres around matters of sex and the differences between male and female attitudes. Richard, Sandy and Bella are combative, and as they all become increasingly drunk the exchanges become more heated. Meanwhile, Bella’s father is in hospital suffering with a brain tumour. He is dying. Flashback scenes of his relationship with Bella as a child, teenager and adult intercut the main action. Then, when Richard poses the question, ‘Who thinks they’ll get married?’, it starts a debate about love, romance and sexual jealousy. Bella was unfaithful to Richard in their relationship. She slept with Tom while she was still with Richard, and during the course of the evening Richard and Tom make this connection. Richard accuses Bella of never trying to see things from anyone else’s perspective. He asks her, ‘Why don’t you care any more?’ The speech that follows is made up of her response to him.

  WHAT TO CONSIDER

  •

  Bella’s inner turmoil. She knows deep down she should be with her father in hospital and not out celebrating with friends.

  •

  Her relationship with her father. She says they don’t get on. This is not the full story. Read the play to understand its complexity.

  •

  Bella dropped out of a law course because she felt she was not clever enough. She now works for a PR company which she describes as ‘a stupid, mindless, waste-of-time job’. She earns a lot of money.

  •

  Richard is a barrister. He and Bella were together on and off for five years. Richard wanted to marry her.

  •

  Tom works in the city. Theirs was a relationship based on sexual attraction. Bella tells Emily that apart from having a good time in bed, she and Tom had nothing in common.

  •

  The stress of being twenty-nine, one year off thirty, when one is supposed to have become an adult and have everything sorted. And when there is no going back!

  WHAT SHE WANTS

  •

  To defend/fight her corner and to explain herself. Note how, halfway through the speech, she says, ‘I did see it from your perspective, Richard.’

  •

  To apologise for her bad behaviour.

  •

  To ensure she does not end up like her mother.

  KEYWORDS (note how many of them are to do with a judgement of some kind) right wrong good important clever tougher harder better shit ruined lost wasting

  Bella

  Richard, you don’t really know my father. […] Do you know why my father always thinks he’s right? And that I’m wrong? […] Because I’m a woman and he’s a man. Deep down, privately, he doesn’t think women are as good as men. Nearly as good, but not quite.

  That’s why he reminds me of you.

  So my mother will never be as important as him…

  And my father thinks – he loves me very much, he loves us all very much – but deep down he thinks – my brothers are the talented ones. The clever ones.

  They’re the ones he’s proud of.

  Not me. […] It is true.

  Beat.

  And it makes me feel competitive. Angry and competitive. I think, you’re wrong. That’s my reaction. You’re wrong and I’m going to prove you wrong. I’ll be tougher, and harder, and better. Because I’m right. Women can be better.

  (To RICHARD.)
I did see it from your perspective, Richard.

  I felt what you felt. Jealousy.

  But I think it comes with love. And I decided not to be in love. I didn’t want to feel it. I decided to be hard.

  Like you said.

  And I know I ruined it.

  And I’m sorry.

  Beat.

  I felt it with you. [i.e. with TOM]

  Beat.

  And it felt – it didn’t feel like I thought it would.

  Because it felt – more than anything else, in the end, it felt – competitive.

  Competitive and angry.

  I thought, you’re not going to treat me like shit. I’m going to treat you like shit. First.

  I ruined it when I tried not to care. And I ruined it when I did. […] And I lost.

  (To RICHARD.) And you think that makes me into a person who doesn’t believe in love. You think I’ve decided to be a selfish, domineering, hard person.

  And I think you’re a selfish, domineering, sentimental person.

  I annoy you. And you annoy me.

  But you’re right. I am deliberately hard, domineering, and selfish. And you know why? Because I saw my mother wasting her whole life on other people. Mainly my father. And I don’t want to do that.

  random

  debbie tucker green

  WHO Sister, young black woman from South London.

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

  WHERE Unspecified, but could be played as it is described, i.e. the hospital/mortuary, the police car, the murder spot. South London.

  WHEN Present day.

  WHAT HAS JUST HAPPENED It is an ordinary day much like any other in the lives of an Afro-Caribbean family. The father is asleep after working the night shift, the mother goes shopping for food, the sister goes to work, and the brother goes to school. But at 1.30 p.m. the brother is fatally wounded, stabbed on the high street in his lunch hour. The police go to the house where they inform the mother and father. The mother texts her daughter: ‘Come home. Now.’ The sister returns. Then she and her father go to identify the body.

  WHAT TO CONSIDER

  •

  All parts are played by the same black actress.

  •

  Although the speech starts in the past tense, it quickly moves to the present. You might want to imagine that you are in the morgue, then the police car and then finally at the scene of the crime as if the events were happening now.

  •

  She is in shock, but articulate. The language is heightened, poetic. There are many key words, giving weight and meaning. Connect to them.

  WHAT SHE WANTS

  •

  To give support to her father.

  •

  To see with her own eyes what they have done to her brother.

  •

  To describe in acute detail what it is she sees. Note how she describes the cut that kills him. It is as tiny as the moment of senselessness. To what extent does the realisation that he was stabbed in the back ‘those rules is broken then – ‘ enrage her?

  KEYWORDS chunk horrific slashed mark kill/killer cut broken gash deep hole heavy silence murder battlefield slain

  Sister

  Dad went down to ID my brother.

  I went down to support our dad.

  Dad went in

  I didn’t have to follow.

  But…

  Brother had a –

  birthmark.

  Here.

  Juss like me.

  But his been

  cut thru

  with a chunk of him gone

  now.

  He had an eye

  two.

  Now he got juss one.

  They try to pretty it up

  mek it look like he winkin…

  But

  … you can’t pretty up

  whass horrific.

  Y’not meant to.

  His mout’

  look like a clown –

  now

  wider than it should be.

  It slashed so much on a one side

  from there

  to there.

  That juss he’s face.

  Thass juss the ones that would mark him,

  wouldn’t kill him.

  Apparently.

  Thass juss the ones he’d haveta live with.

  Have had to live with.

  He have plenty little

  like – uh – like –

  (gestures forearms)

  look like he a self-harmer

  but proof he fought back.

  Then they have to turn him

  and

  hold him

  an’

  lie him on his side

  an’

  so we could see – could see good

  lookin hard to see.

  Point of entry.

  The killer cut.

  You have to look hard

  to look hard.

  This was…

  the smallest.

  The cleanest.

  The easiest to miss

  part of it all.

  Truss mi.

  Juss –

  round.

  (gestures)

  From the back –

  those rules is broken then –

  thru to –

  (gestures)

  punctured his…

  su’un – important.

  But.

  Not no gash.

  Not no not sure.

  Not no random.

  Juss a small

  deep

  sorta

  round

  sorta

  hole.

  In him.

  Easy to miss.

  Easy to miss.

  Easy to miss.

  (Beat.)

  And our dad the kinda dad who…

  Who…

  don’t say nuthin –

  unless he –

  who won’t say anythin –

  unless…

  Dad tryin to say somethin.

  Dad’s tryin to say somethin

  but

  … nu’un won’t [come out]…

  I watch.

  Watch him.

  … He’s embarrassed.

  I watch his embarrassment.

  I can’t look away.

  Where do it say –

  this is part of it?

  They lift us back

  in a unmarked ride,

  tho I can still tell iss one of theirs.

  And me an’ Dad sit

  in the back –

  like kids

  as they drive us home

  havin to ask directions.

  The only thing breakin the heavy silence.

  And I still ent stopped

  starin at Dad.

  Dad still ent stopped

  lookin away

  and we pass the everyday

  the life goes on

  the

  people goin about they business

  the

  people who don’t know – won’t know – don’t got no idea.

  We pass the spot.

  I ask –

  to stop. Get let out and get out.

  As they drive on.

  Standin by the yellow an’ blue murder board

  the battlefield where brother slain.

  Alone.

  Me on my own.

  Cept for the boys in blue

  guarding the pavement piece

  I guess.

  Watchin

  the Police tape bouncing

  in the breeze.

  Too late.

  Scenes from the Big Picture

  Owen McCafferty

  WHO Maeve Hynes, late twenties, Northern Irish.

  TO WHOM Joe Hynes, her husband.

  WHERE Downstairs in their house in an imagined area of Belfast. The exact room is not specified. It could be in the hallway, kitchen or sitting room. You decide.

 
; WHEN Present day, summer.

  WHAT HAS JUST HAPPENED The play follows a day in the life of twenty-one characters whose stories are interwoven. Maeve and Joe Hynes have been together for ten years, but are having trouble conceiving a child. Maeve is becoming increasingly anxious and Joe has started an affair with Helen Woods, a barmaid who works in a local pub. Maeve has spent the day comforting and supporting her cousin, who gave birth to a little boy. Joe, who has been promoted to shop steward in an abattoir, has had a day of increasing stress. The business is on the verge of collapse, and he has been required to make some difficult decisions. Amidst all this he has been calling Helen on his mobile phone. It is a small community, and at one point Helen was in the same shop as Maeve, who was buying baby cream. Joe also made time to visit Helen at the pub where they had oral sex. Meanwhile, at the hospital with her cousin, Maeve stole a dummy baby that they give to mothers-to-be to practise on. When Joe arrives home he thinks it is a real baby and that she has snatched it out of desperation. He threatens to report her and, while he considers her to be in such a crazed state, uses the opportunity to reveal his true feelings towards her and about their marriage. He lets slip that he would rather be somewhere else. When Maeve shows him that the baby is a dummy, it is too late for him to go back on what he has said. The truth is out, and Maeve realises that he no longer wants to be with her. Her speech is in response to Joe saying, ‘a didn’t mean things to happen this way’.

  WHAT TO CONSIDER

  •

  The speech comes at the end of a long, hot day. Both Maeve and Joe are at breaking point.

  •

  He loved her once. To what extent does she still love him? Note how amidst all the pain and hurt she offers to iron his clothes. What does it tell you about the marriage? Is it an indication that she still loves him enough to prevent him from going about in creased clothing or is it just that old habits die hard? Is it to do with her pride? Whatever you decide, it is a touching and poignant detail.

  •

  The moment of realisation – ‘i know who it is’. Don’t rush this. Read the whole play so you know what incident Maeve is recalling. You may like to imagine ‘Helen’ as someone you know who is prettier/younger/more overtly sexual than you consider yourself to be in order for you to connect to Maeve’s feelings of hurt and humiliation.