Contemporary Monologues – Women
(Last 10 years)

Character: Zia (South Asian)

Age: Any

Play: MY WHITE BEST FRIEND: (AND OTHER LETTERS LEFT UNSAID)

Author: Zia Ahmed (premiered 2019)

Brief Synopsis: My White Best Friend collects 23 letters that engage with a range of topics, from racial tensions, microaggressions and emotional labour, to queer desire, prejudice and otherness. Expressing feelings and thoughts often stifled or ignored, the pieces here transform letter writing into a provocative act of candour.

Speech: (Reading aloud)

A request from Zia.

Can all black + brown people who are working class come to the front
white + working class in the middle
everyone else back row
please be honest

Zainab
not gonna lie
Uhhh
I watched the video
of my white best friend
and I was caught in two minds
it’s a bit of a headf***
cos I’m torn
course the peace speaks to a lot of people
but there’s something about it
I can’t put my finger on like
I duno
did white people respond to it
because a white person was saying it?
cos maybe intentionally or not
it centers the white person
and does that mean
they only listen to things when a white person’s saying it?
you know
like
like online when bare things go viral when it’s a white person saying racism is bad
but people who actually experienced it get told like calm down or stop playing the race card
or I duni
so I’m glad you’re on stage

a brown woman
my f***ing mate
I love you
you’re sick
we come up to see you in Stratford-upon-Avon
you killed it on stage
we went back to yours
you made a banging daal
in the room 4 south Asian actors/writers
you me h + s
and we jus talk for ages
about how things are changing
about how things aren’t changing
about changing s***
about the joy + pain of it
this industry it’s hard
being brown being working class +
how we go on
how we’ve known each other for so long
sometimes it feels like
let’s talk about something else
but the talking helps
I know there’s bear WhatsApp groups
sending the tweets the articles the good news the grievances the support in the allegiances
in these chats

in knowing there’s people who got your back
just some of the things we talked about
opened out

(please read the cards in order one by one)

Card one

dear
insert name
‘Half of what I say is meaningless; but I say it’s so that the other half may reach you.’
white ppl love khalil gibran
badly translated rumi quotes
‘The wound is where the light enters you.’

Character: Actor 6 (‘A Black Woman’)

Age: Any

Play: WE ARE PROUD TO PRESENT A PRESENTATION ABOUT THE HERERO OF NAMIBIA, FORMERLY KNOWN AS SOUTHWEST AFRICA, FROM THE GERMAN SUDWESTAFRIKA, BETWEEN THE YEARS 1884 – 1915

Author:  Award-winning playwright Jackie Sibblies Drury (published 2014)

Brief Synopsis:A group of actors gather to tell the little-known story of the first genocide of the twentieth century. As the full force of a horrific past crashes into the good intentions of the present, what seemed a far-away place and time is suddenly all too close to home. Just whose story are they telling?

Speech: (NB: italics is her reading the presentation cards aloud)

Hello thank you for coming.
Oh, I already did that.
Welcome to our presentation.
We have prepared a lecture to proceed the presentation because we feel that you would benefit from some background information so as to give our presentation a greater amount of context.
Yeah. Ok, so, the lecture’s a lecture but it’s not a lecture lecture.
We made it fun.
Ish
Sort of.
Anyway.
The lecture’s duration should last approximately five minutes.
It might be ten. I’m bad at time.
Because, you know, what’s happening is the important thing, it doesn’t matter when it happens, or how long it happens for, it’s that it’s happening. Am I right?
(Nervous laugh)
This is happening.
(Nervous laugh)
Ok.
In this lecture- Um…Wait, what?
(She flips through the cards)
Ok.
(To the ensemble and audience at the same time).
‘We’ forgot to write in the part ‘we’ agreed ‘we’d’ write about the overview.
So…
(To the audience)
Ok. So, there’s like a lecture that’s only sort of the lecture and then we did this thing that is kind of like an overview before the lecture, which is before the presentation.
Does that make sense?
OK.
Yeah…
yeah I think I’m just going to skip some of this stuff, you know, since it seems it doesn’t actually say what we all agreed that it should say. even though we went through a lot to figure out how to do this and introduce it properly, but this introduction isn’t what it’s supposed to be so…
This so is what we’re doing: Lecture, Overview, Presentation. Super fun, great.
(To herself) Skip skip skip.
Helping me Present the lecture to you is our ensemble of actors.
I’m also kind of the artistic director of our ensemble, so. Okay.
In this presentation, which is already started I know, I will be playing the part of Black Woman. I am also black, in real life, which you might find confusing. Please try to think of it like this: Black Woman is just the name of the character I’m playing.

This actor will be referred to as Black Man.
This actor will be referred to as White Man.
This actor will be referred to as Another Black Man.
This actor will be referred to as Another White Man.
This actor will….Actually, we haven’t really explained you yet. And they won’t get it, so …(To the audience) just ignore her for now. Ok.
Another White Man… because this is true in real life and in this lecture and subsequent presentation.

Now, without further ado, we present to you a lecture about Namibia.

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Character: B

Age: Any

Play: LITTLE ON THE INSIDE

Author: Alice Birch (premiered 2013)

Brief Synopsis: Two unnamed characters, A and B, in reality occupy a cell, but they find spiritual freedom in inventing a rich and extraordinary world where they might exist together. This is a short but complex play about the love two women have for each other, and the power of imagination and storytelling to excite, sustain and console. in this monologue, B describes the moment at which she came to understand A, and A invites her into the imagined world she has created.

Speech:

And I realise
There are Giants in there.
In You.
Giants.
Marching all around your bones.

I had learnt to listen. And she had learnt to talk.

When we Get each other. And I get to come here.
This patch of green.
That is in her head.
Where white-eyes sing up in the red mangrove trees.
And the sea is in the distance.
And sometimes there’s an old couple sharing sandwiches in a rose garden.
It’s like she’s kept it in her fists. All these rages and laughs and whispers for ears that haven’t been enough.
So when she puts these hot little clenches up by my ears and
Opens
I get them all.
And we sit here.
Our backs to the burnt bed sheets and the hair and the shouts and the walls covered in faces you’re not sure will be there when you are back out in Air. Her sitting under a tree her heart of all full and Me swimming.
Swimming in a sequined dress

A sequin dress from the back of mum’s wardrobe

Not supposed to touch.

There’s a creak on one bit of the floor by the wardrobe that means you have to go on one toe and lean in like it’s The Lion the Witch and the Wardrobe and I pull out that sequined dress and smear of lipstick and heels that don’t fit and I dance like I’m swimming, I dance like I’m doing the backstroke and the butterfly and like the air is cool and a kiss and not hot and a livid punch. And I dance to Yazoo, I just dance to Yazoo in my bedroom whilst downstairs there’s a little hot quiet storm as my mum has her hand over one man and hour’s mouth or tries not to make a noise as her body shifts to a place where it isn’t hers and later, later her face will be a map of blue bruises but there will be chips for tea but for now I am dancing like I’m swimming and the red-winged blackbird singing in the green plumtrees outside my window, my legs skinny and dancing and sequins falling onto the brown carpet like moss under the too big for you girl shoes.

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Character: Ace (‘Has a hair style and outfit that yell ‘look at me! I’m gorgeous!)

Age: 15

Play: KARAMAZOO

Author: Philip Ridley (published as part of THE STORYTELLER SEQUENCE 2014)

Brief Synopsis:  A fifteen-minute monologue about one of the coolest, most popular kids in the school, whose recent increase in popularity is the direct result of a character make-over following the death of a parent. A witty and moving performance piece for the teenage actor.

Speech:

This is what happens when you make a date with a bloody Hatchling- oh! That’s one of my words. It describes a certain kind of boy. One who acts like a baby duck. You know? After a duck pecks out its shell the first thing it claps eyes on – Quack-quack! Love! Well, that’s what Mr Not Here On Time was like. First day I joined the school – There he is! Eyes wide. Tongue down to his knees. Pure Hatchling! I’ve got words for most sorts of people. I’m good with words. I take after my Dad but… well, that’s another story. 

Slight pause 

Charity! That’s what my agreeing to meet him is. He’s not even cute. A Hatchling can sometimes be amusing if they’re cute. Nicole – she had a Hatchling last year by all accounts, and she says he used to buy her little presents and send her love poems and – more importantly – looked terrific without his shirt on. I’ve seen a photo of him, and believe me, that boy put the ‘it’ back in fit. A Hatchling like that I could live with. A Hatchling like that I might even encourage. But my one – and I don’t wanna sound mean, I really don’t, but facts is facts and he put the ‘ug’ back in ugly. He wears t-shirts the size of marquees for one thing which is usually a sign of acute six-pack shortage in my experience. And as for his ears… well, let’s just say if a strong wind catches him unawares he could end up in Alaska quicker than you can say flying elephants. Oh, I know what you’re thinking. B***chy cow. But I’m not. I’m just being honest.

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Character: Simone

Age: Late-teens

Play: FERAL

Author:  BAFTA-Award Winner John Foster (first performed 2018)

Brief Synopsis: A new one-woman Gypsy-Folk musical drama. Exploring racism, community, the gypsy experience and the conflict between logic and intuition, this compelling show follows the story of eighteen-year-old Simone as she is gripped by a magnetic and overwhelming impulse to abandon her family and travel in the open Dorset landscape. Living rough and stealing money and food to survive, Simone weaves an erratic trail, moving across the contours of the land and meeting an ensemble of characters

Speech:

What happened?
He asked.
My teacher.
Last Sports day.
Year ago.
What happened, Simone?
Told him.
Nothing, sir.
What went wrong?
He wanted to know.
What you mean, sir?
Why do that, girl?
Girl?
Why do you always do that, girl?
Dunno, sir.
What was that all about?
Just got puffed.
You didn’t get puffed, Simone.
Got the stitch.
No stitch. Stitch.
No stitch for you.
Didn’t want it.
You could’ve won.
Nope.
Easily. You know that.
Didn’t want to go on, sir.
You could always win.
Win each time.
Every time.
If you’d a mind.
What’s the point?
It’s a race.
Like the running.
The running, that’s all.
What d’you like about it?
Just to run.
But you stop.
Stop every time.
Every race.
Before you reach the finishing line.
Dead in your tracks.
Each time.
Stood on the track.
Letting the others run past.
Said to him
We got to talk about it, sir?
Have we?
Letting the others pass you.
Overtake.
Get ahead of you.
And someone else wins.
You let them win.
Said to him
Seems to matter to them.
Important to them.
Don’t you ever want to win, Simone?
Win the race?
What’s the point?
People race to win.
Right.
People want to come first.
It’s competitive.
Spoils it.
Told him.
Takes away.
Told him.
Why don’t you let yourself win?
Why bother?
Just the once?
Not my thing.
Winning?
Not my wont.
You’re such a natural.
Long legs is all, sir.
Don’t put yourself down.
Okay, sir.
You’ve got real flair.
Nice of you, sir.
Can I go now, sir?

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Character: White best friend. (White woman)

Age: Any

Play: MY WHITE BEST FRIEND: (AND OTHER LETTERS LEFT UNSAID)

Author: Rachel De-lahay (premiered 2019)

Brief Synopsis: My White Best Friend collects 23 letters that engage with a range of topics, from racial tensions, microaggressions and emotional labour, to queer desire, prejudice and otherness. Expressing feelings and thoughts often stifled or ignored, the pieces here transform letter writing into a provocative act of candour.

Speech:

That fight didn’t happen. At all. I just went to bed. And Rachel let me. ‘Cause this is the fight you and your white best friend will never have. ‘Cause how do you say to someone you love…You let me down.

How do you ask your white best friend to try and visibly give a damn? Change your profile picture, share that post, march! Knowing it will make them feel uncomfortable? How could you ever put your white best friend on stage and remind them that they’re part of the problem? If you love them? If you never want anyone to feel for even a moment how you feel living in this world every day?

So we don’t discuss it. Which means I never got to say…

I’m sorry.

I’m sorry that when you spoke your mind, I shuffled and shifted uncomfortable with the dialogue. I’m sorry that on gutsier days I argued points defending myself first and foremost, as a woman, as a white woman, struggling to see the difference. I’m sorry I never thought to educate myself privately, and fight, not even alongside you, but in front of you, ‘cause maybe you’re tired.

This is the most uncomfortable I’ve ever been on stage. And I don’t like it. One bit.

But maybe that’s ok. Maybe not every day enjoying our privileges and coasting through life, comfortable. Maybe some days putting ourselves out there for somebody else. Standing up, loudly, visibly, for someone less privileged, and bearing the brunt of the brazen misogyny, racism and homophobia that can incur.

I am not that white woman. Yet. These words aren’t my words. They are a request, an offering, from my best friend who thinks if we have the ability to reshuffle and change a small space like this, so quickly, into a safe space, we have the ability to change the world.

Character: Claire

Age: 15

Play: CLAIRE’S SOLUTION (from APPLES)

Author: John Retallack (premiered 2010)

Brief Synopsis: Set on a Middlesbrough council estate, five fifteen year olds negotiate a world where the adults are absent, drugs are everywhere, sex is desperate and life is both terrifying and thrilling. Claire was raped at a party by a boy from school after she had passed out from a combination of alcohol and drugs. She became pregnant and now has a baby boy, whom she isn’t able to name. Her life has been turned upside down by the baby and she is no longer able to go out with her friends or even get Gary’s attention: she still feels some connection to him despite the rape. 

Speech:

We cried into each other’s faces
at least there was no one around to see me bawling
Five minutes later we reached the beck again
we stood at the side of the bridge
The water rose and surged like a black brick road
I thought of Eve and Debbie in Majorca
sunning themselves
not giving a care about the people back home
I imagined them banging a bunch of Spanish hunks
I was f***ing jealous
Eve probably didn’t even care about Gary
she had that special way of using people
and getting whatever she wanted
To baby boy
‘What are we going to do with you?’
He didn’t seem to know
His tantrums started all over again
the noise was incredible
What an ugly idiot he was
My brain was overflowing with baby’s, boys and b****es
it f***ing knacked
I told Eve it was Gary’s baby
she still went and shagged him
I cuddled the little knobhead in my arms for a minute
The crying was unbearable
I really wanted to strangle it
It struck me for the rest of my life
I’d only have the Baby Boy for company
so far he hasn’t been much of a mate
I stood him on top of the bridge railing
we had a dance as the wind eased up a bit
I made a little prayer
scrunch my eyes
and accidentally on purpose threw him off the rail
There was a big plop in the water
and a bit of red where he must’ve smacked off the bottom
I faked a look of horror
Gary’s jaw and my hair colour and cheekbones
washing down the dirty stream
I felt a bit sick, but at least I’d got it over with
I pushed my lips together and charged down the road again
the breeze still going but nothing holding me back
I felt like all the estate’s eyes were on me
but killing the baby was just a silly mistake
We’ve all been there
When I got in
I made sure to phone 999 straight away
I waited for them to come round
I had a story in my head
I stared at the windows
I felt alright
The sky wasn’t exactly glowing but all the black clouds
they were diamonds

Character: Simone

Age: Late-teens

Play: FERAL

Author:  BAFTA-Award Winner John Foster (first performed 2018)

Brief Synopsis: A new one-woman Gypsy-Folk musical drama. Exploring racism, community, the gypsy experience and the conflict between logic and intuition, this compelling show follows the story of eighteen-year-old Simone as she is gripped by a magnetic and overwhelming impulse to abandon her family and travel in the open Dorset landscape. Living rough and stealing money and food to survive, Simone weaves an erratic trail, moving across the contours of the land and meeting an ensemble of characters

Speech:

Speech:
Bother.
I’m in bother.
Bad bother.
So much aggro.
What dad would call a pickle.
Go back.
Voice in my head.
Go back.
Back, Simone.
Back, girl.
Back.
Go back.
You must go back.
Bars.
Boxes.
Barriers.
Don’t do this.
Don’t go out there.
Wanting to.
Longing.
Turn back!
Torn.
Be warned.
Two minds.
Return.
Coop.
Safety.
Sanctuary.
Sound of rain tipping down, gradually increasing in ferocity.
Shivering.
Goose pimples.
Thunder. Sheet lightning.
Pull back.
Scared.
No way.
Not scared.
Fess up!
Fess up!
Scared.
Shit scared.
Home.
Come home.
Chill.
Deep in my bones.
Where you belong.
Feel the cold bite.
Turn about.
Hearth and home.
Pounds the ground with her fists.
No no no!
Rises, turns back to the path before her.
Whatever’s out here…
Speaks to me…
Whoever…
Whatever…

Character: Simone

Age: Late-teens

Play: FERAL

Author:  BAFTA-Award Winner John Foster (first performed 2018)

Brief Synopsis: A new one-woman Gypsy-Folk musical drama. Exploring racism, community, the gypsy experience and the conflict between logic and intuition, this compelling show follows the story of eighteen-year-old Simone as she is gripped by a magnetic and overwhelming impulse to abandon her family and travel in the open Dorset landscape. Living rough and stealing money and food to survive, Simone weaves an erratic trail, moving across the contours of the land and meeting an ensemble of characters

Speech:

Taking me in?
Asking the bluebottle.
Down the station?
You’re in trouble
He says.
Slow nod of his head.
Load of trouble.
Criminal damage, lass.
Lass?
Lass?
Calling me lass?
Why’d you do it, Simone?
Woman cop this time.
I tell her.
In my head.
But they don’t get it.
Not really.
They never do.
Something that’s got to be said.
Something you need to know.
Archer cop, serious face.
It’s only right.
Should be your dad.
Telling you.
But he’s not here.
This’ll surprise you, Simone.
Maybe a bit of a shock.
So take a deep breath, right?
What’s he on about?
Your parents.
What about them?
They were Travellers.
Gypsies, Simone.
Gypsies.
You are gypsy.
Yes.
Me.
Tingling.
Tingling all over.
Everything numb.
Heart thumping in my chest.
Lived there.
Archer says.
Just down there.
That camp.
Then I see it.
I see the place.
On the lip of green by the sea.
Group of caravans.
Trailers.
Smoke from fires.
Washing lines.
Dogs.
Kids playing.
There it is.
Like I know.
Know something.
Rooted in me.
Long past.
Born down there.
The cop is saying.
Then got rehoused.
On the estate.
Where you are now.
Your mum and dad.
Said nothing.
Told no one.
Their gypsy past.
Kept secret.
Afraid.
Prejudice and all.
Didn’t want it known on the estate.
What people would think of them.
What they’d say.
Maybe do.
Know what I mean?
Bigotry.
Ignorance.
So they kept it quiet.
Free of all that.
You OK, Simone?

Character: Anna

Age: 18

Play: THE ALMIGHTY SOMETIMES

Author:  Kendall Feaver (published 2018)

Brief Synopsis: Diagnosed with a severe mental illness as a child, Anna was prescribed a cocktail of pills. Now a young adult, she’s wondering how life might feel without them. But as she tries to move beyond the labels that have defined her, her mother feels compelled to intervene – threatening the fragile balance they have both fought so hard to maintain.

Speech:

Do you know how many drugs I’ve been on, Vivi? Seven. I wrote up a list this morning. The first one, I couldn’t get out of bed so you swapped it for something that had me bouncing off the walls, but it also made me so fat I didn’t want to leave the house. You countered that with the pill that made my hands shake and then swapped that for something that made me nauseous for the whole four months it took me to adjust to it, but then my vision started blurring, so you lowered that one and tried something else, but then I started getting these really bad nightmares and I wasn’t sleeping again, so you added something for the anxiety and something for the insomnia, and I have to ask this, Vivi, and I’m sorry, because this question does seem so blindingly obvious: did you ever think that maybe the reason this course of treatment was so ineffective is because you original diagnosis was actually incorrect?