Contemporary Monologues for Women

by Trilby James

  I just wanted it to disappear.

  Or for me to disappear.

  I don’t know.

  God. I – it felt so… uhhgh.

  I tried to disappear – if you know what I mean…[…]

  … everything felt so shit. But. He did that. I know it was him. He was always so pervy – he always carried this fucking video camera around with him. I don’t know. So when someone said – the other day someone said about how they’d heard he was – you know, like – bent or something. I thought. I don’t want anyone else to go through that. I told my mum. She said I should come here. Not for me. Not so much. But in case there’re others. In case it wasn’t a one-off, you know? I don’t want to waste anyone’s time. I just thought. You know? I should. You know? Say.

  Pieces

  Hywel John

  WHO Bea, a pre-adolescent child.

  TO WHOM Sophie, her godmother.

  WHERE The sitting room of a family house, in a remote part of the countryside.

  WHEN Present day.

  WHAT HAS JUST HAPPENED Bea and her twin brother Jack have lost their parents in a car accident. The only person who is able to look after them is Sophie, their godmother. Sophie has not seen them in years, and they can barely remember her. Bea can just about recall Sophie from a birthday party the twins had when they were very little. She has an abiding memory of her mother shouting at her father afterwards. The play starts straight after the funeral. Sophie has come to stay in their large house on the edge of the forest. The three of them are in shock and are struggling to come to terms with what has just happened. It is shortly before dawn after their second night together and Bea has woken up early. She is wearing her mother’s floral dress and has come downstairs to the sitting room where Sophie is asleep on the couch. She practises her ballet, and Sophie wakes up. She explains to Sophie that she is not very good at ballet and that Jack thinks she is a ‘clodhopper’. She asks Sophie if she will dance with her.

  WHAT TO CONSIDER

  •

  Bea is grieving the sudden loss of her parents.

  •

  She is one of a twin.

  •

  Her relationship with her brother is strange and intense.

  •

  Although they are children, both Bea and Jack are highly articulate and very direct. They like to dress as adults and mimic their parents’ relationship. (Later in the play Sophie is shocked to see the twins kissing.)

  •

  Like many twins there is something self-sufficient about Bea and Jack that others find unnerving. Decide to what extent growing up in such a remote place has influenced them.

  •

  The constant power struggle between Sophie and the twins.

  •

  Read the play to find out why Sophie has been absent from the family for so long and to discover what happens when the twins prepare a ‘surprise’ birthday party for themselves.

  WHAT SHE WANTS

  •

  To imagine her mother is still alive.

  •

  To hang on to what is familiar and normal by recreating the family routine.

  •

  To find a way forward.

  KEYWORDS wake/woke early kiss pieces puzzle quiz game

  Bea

  Will you do dancing with me, Sophie? […] Oh, come on. […] I don’t care. I’m a clodhopper, so you’ll only be as bad as me. […] Come on, come on, come on. […] Sometimes I wake up this early and come down and I see Mum standing right here, looking out at the sun rising on the garden. She wears this dress sometimes when I’ve seen her. I’m in my jim-jams though.

  She stands here all quiet just looking out of the window and I know she’s just like me because she obviously woke up straight away very early too just like me. I stand still and look at her sometimes. Mostly I say hello and she gives me a kiss and walks into the kitchen and puts the kettle on. Then I do my dancing practice.

  Dad and Jack are fast asleep and they never saw it. Not once. But Mum comes back in with her tea and watches me here. In this spot, right here, watching me be a right old clodhopper. Then once she finishes her tea she comes over and helps me a bit. And we dance together a bit. Then she gives me a kiss and goes to wake up Dad.

  So, come on. Come on, Sophie. Then I’ll go and wake up Jack. […] Just hold my hands as I practise pirouetting on my tiptoes. […]

  We have to fill the gaps. […] Like a jigsaw. […] Jack and me were talking about it. […] Is that what the phrase ‘picking up the pieces’ means? […]

  We read it in some book. It said something like: ‘When something as terrible as this happens, only the children are left to pick up the pieces.’ Something like that. And I thought, what pieces do I have to pick up? And I’ve been looking around and I think it’s like a jigsaw puzzle, where you have to pick up all the pieces to complete the picture all over again. And we just got to figure out what those pieces are. It’s like a quiz. Like a game of hide-and-seek or something. I’m going to have a morning bath now. […] Put the kettle on. Mum puts the kettle on.

  Precious Little Talent

  Ella Hickson

  WHO Joey, twenty-three, middle class, English.

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

  WHERE New York.

  WHEN February, 2009.

  WHAT HAS JUST HAPPENED Joey has flown to New York to visit her father George, whom she has not seen in two years. Up on the rooftop above his apartment she meets Sam, a nineteen-year-old American boy. It is Christmas Eve and they spend a madcap evening chasing up and down Manhattan together. The following morning, Sam and Joey are surprised to see each other in George’s apartment. Sam had no idea that Joey was George’s daughter, and Joey, thinking that Sam is just a friendly neighbour, has no idea that Sam is George’s carer or that George is suffering from Lewy body dementia. Both men try to keep her unaware of George’s condition, but it becomes obvious on Christmas Day when, during a game of Trivial Pursuit, George, a former academic, cannot remember the answer to a simple question. Later when they are alone, Joey quizzes Sam about George’s life expectancy. He tells her that it is between three to five years. Joey is terrified that her father will forget her. In the meantime, Sam has fallen in love with Joey, but Joey is much more reserved. The play then fast-forwards to February, which is when she tells us – in the speech that follows – about how their relationship has developed.

  WHAT TO CONSIDER

  •

  Joey has left university with a first-class degree. She was sacked from a bar job. Like many of her generation, she cannot find suitable work.

  •

  She cannot relate to her mother, who has remarried a Muslim man and with whom she has had a daughter who speaks a different language.

  •

  Joey is terrified of insignificance and says she is scared she will ‘disappear’.

  •

  Is Joey’s angst synonymous with that of being twenty-something or has it more to do with the fact that her father is dying?

  •

  Joey’s cynicism is typically English, while Sam’s brand of optimism is typically American.

  •

  Much of the play’s discussion and humour resides in the differences between English and American sensibilities.

  •

  Barack Obama is ‘that new President of theirs’.

  WHAT SHE WANTS

  •

  To believe in something bigger than herself.

  •

  For something to matter to her.

  •

  To live a life that is meaningful.

  •

  To make a difference and to be remembered.

  KEYWORDS movement soul faith believe forgotten

  Joey

  It’s a movement, isn’t it? That’s what they call it. When people feel the same thing in their soul at the same time – they call it a movement. I’ve always been jealous that I never
got to ban the bomb, or burn my bras, jealous of people that lived through the war because, well, they had a common enemy and that’d make you want to fight and it’d make it clear what you were fighting for and it might even allow for a hero or two.

  I said this to Sam, who, it transpired, one got used to over time – sure there were differences; sex, for example. I liked the British kind, angsty, passionate but essentially joyless and for him, well it was sort of like going to the Oscars, lots of tears and thank-yous and I felt he struggled with an overwhelming urge to clap at the end.

  We sat with Dad, and played board games and talked and – Sam would take over when Dad forgot things, or when I found dirty plates in the cupboard or his shaving stuff in the cutlery drawer, or once when he struggled for my name – Sam stepped in at times when I just couldn’t really stop myself from finding it all horribly sad. (Controls tears.)

  In January Sam took me away for the weekend – and when we got to Washington, strangers were high-fiving each other and smiling and everyone seemed so – excited. It was that same feeling I’d had, on that rooftop on Christmas Day, right in the pit of my stomach, looking at all those tiny lights holding tiny lives and knowing that they were part of something – but that something was bigger than them – and it was good. And when it came to it, with the sun peeking itself out behind the Washington Monument, and looking down The Mall and seeing two million people waiting, exercising the muscle of – faith – well, I thought that it didn’t really matter what you believed in – just as long as you knew how to believe.

  And just as he appeared and all the flags started waving and young kids started whooping and older men and women shed some quieter tears, Sam turned to me and he wrapped me right up in his scarf and he said –

  ‘Now, you’ve got to believe in this – right?’

  And I looked at him, and he had this stupid smile on his face, grinning ear to fucking ear, and suddenly I realised what kind of balls it takes just to think that the world isn’t such a bad place.

  But of course, Sam, Dad, even that new President of theirs, they weren’t really mine to believe in, not for ever anyway. No, us British, English – well, me – I’m not like them, I’m not flying the flag of revolution, I don’t have fire in my belly or idealism on my tongue and I’m not singing the song of change and why? Because I don’t know the words yet; but I will, we will. I won’t be forgotten.

  The Pride

  Alexi Kaye Campbell

  WHO Sylvia, mid-thirties, middle class.

  TO WHOM Oliver, mid-thirties, her close friend, gay.

  WHERE A park bench, London.

  WHEN 2008.

  WHAT HAS JUST HAPPENED The play tells the story of two sets of characters, both with the same names, from 1958 and from 2008. In 1958, Sylvia, is unhappily married to Philip. He is gay but in denial. When he meets her friend and colleague Oliver, he is unable to control his feelings of attraction. But the practice of homosexuality is illegal and their torrid affair ends unhappily. In 2008, Oliver and Philip, both friends of Sylvia’s, are in a relationship and have been together for over a year. However, Oliver is promiscuous and Philip wants to end their relationship. They split up for a while but, with Sylvia’s help, they will be reunited at Pride. Here, towards the end of the play and just before Philip arrives, Sylvia and Oliver are in the park where the Pride party is in full swing.

  WHAT TO CONSIDER

  •

  Unlike her 1958 counterpart, Sylvia is confident, independent and happy.

  •

  Sylvia is an actress and has just landed the role of Viola in Twelfth Night at Stratford.

  •

  She has an Italian boyfriend called Mario and hopes one day to have children with him.

  •

  She is very close to Oliver and has nursed him through difficult times.

  •

  The punctuation. Notice how few full stops there are. What might this suggest about the rhythm and pace?

  •

  Sylvia is impassioned, but try not to let the thoughts run away with you.

  WHAT SHE WANTS

  •

  To express her disgust at the ignorance and narrow-mindedness of others.

  •

  To protect Oliver from ridicule.

  •

  For Oliver to take himself seriously. She fears he has become a caricature of himself.

  •

  To shake him and to wake him up.

  •

  To remind Oliver that his freedoms have been hard won.

  •

  To politicise Oliver.

  •

  To prepare Oliver for the necessary changes he must make in order to have a less selfish and more committed relationship with Philip.

  KEYWORDS gay shit reduce shallow exile

  Sylvia

  And every second word is ‘gay’. Gay this and gay that. ‘You’re so gay, it’s so gay, they’re so gay. Everything’s gay.’ So there’s this one kid and she kind of looks a bit less scary than the rest of them and I just turn around and trying not to sound like her English teacher I say, ‘Excuse me’… […] ‘Excuse me, miss, but what exactly does that word mean? I mean, when you use it in that context. Like “That is such a gay song”. When you say “That is such a gay song” what exactly does that mean?’ […] She says it means ‘shit’. It means it’s shit. The word ‘gay’ is another word for saying ‘shit’. […] I mean, the stuff you guys have to put up with. And then like literally the same evening I’m at Jennifer’s for dinner. […] And she’s invited another five or six people including some Spanish guy in pharmaceutics she’s crazy about and Millie Wallis, who’s had a massive nose job and looks completely different but nobody’s allowed to talk about it so we’re all pretending that even though her face is entirely different we haven’t noticed a thing and there’s this one guy who’s being really quite annoying and pretending to be really liberal but saying something along the lines of, well, it kind of makes sense for the inheritance stuff but they don’t really care about the other stuff, whatever that means, I mean, most of them just want to have fun and then Sonya’s joining in and saying, and I quote, that ‘some of her best friends are gay’ … […] But it’s all kind of gone mad, she’s saying, I mean, when’s it going to stop and then she’s going on about how most of the gay guys she knows are hedonists and spend most of their time in the gym and why should they want to imitate the straights anyway and it’s all very much a chorus of ‘we all love gay people and aren’t they fun and if you ever need advice on wallpaper’, but… […] But I looked at them and they’re all… […] I suddenly looked at them and I was listening to what they were saying and they’re not bad people, Oliver, I mean, a bit unimaginative, maybe, but not necessarily bad and I’m looking at them and I’m thinking… […] Fuck, I don’t know how to say this but they reduce you. […] They reduce you, Oliver, to this person who is shallow. Someone who is defined by his body, by what he does with his body and by his taste in things. Clothes, interiors, whatever… […] And the thing is you’re so much more than that. And somewhere, somewhere, you, Oliver, have agreed with them. You’ve come to an agreement that this is what you are. […] And I’m thinking of what it was that first made people question things, to push the boundaries, I mean, to stand up for themselves and to really fight and that what they were fighting for can’t have been the right to fuck in parks and wear designer clothes… […] After all, the only reason you were in the parks to begin with was because you couldn’t be at home. You were kicked out, as it were. In exile.

  Push Up

  Roland Schimmelpfennig, translated by Maja Zade

  WHO Sabine, twenty-eight, Head of Department in a successful corporation.

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

  WHERE A top executive’s office.

  WHEN Present day.

  WHAT HAS JUST HAPPENED The speech that follows comes close to the start of the play. It i
nterrupts a scene between Sabine and Angelika, a top executive and wife of Sabine’s boss, Kramer. Sabine has requested this meeting with Angelika to find out why she has turned Sabine down for the Delhi job. It is the job that everyone wants and one for which Sabine feels more than qualified. Read the play to find out what happens next.

  WHAT TO CONSIDER

  •

  The style of the play. Scenes are interrupted while characters talk directly to the audience.

  •

  The language. Sentences are short and to the point.