Monologue Choices

Five Kinds Of Silence By Shelagh Stephenson

Plot

It tells the story of a family living under the power of the vicious Billy, who physically, emotionally, and sexually abuses his wife, Mary, and children, Susan and Janet. The stage play is adapted from the radio production of the same name.

Major Themes

Major themes in the play are control and how the family is actually bonded by abuse. The story of abuse that Billy's family endured unfolds from interviews with police officials and psychologists with Mary, Susan and Janet. Billy himself was abused when he was a child; Mary was abused by her father after the death of her mother. After so many years the two daughters shoot their father during an epileptic fit.
The play is coordinated to bring out Billy's passively sinister presence, and although he is not physically there, he is present in their memories. His abuse to these women has been so horrific that they shoot him twice to make sure he is dead.
The play also explores ideas of abuse being continued from childhood, how abused children may in the future abuse their own children and isolation from the outside world. This theory relates to John Bowlby's Continuity hypothesis theory. How the relationship an infant has with its parent or parents shapes future ideas about relationships and future behaviour towards relationships.

The Play

The stage version of the play was first performed at the Lyric Hammersmith, London on 31 May 2000. It also won the 1996 Writers' Guild award for Best original Radio Play and the 1997 Sony Award for Best Original Drama.

About The Monologue

susan expresses the feelings she has on her father kissing her and her sister in public and the reason her and her sister killed him.

After The End By Dennis Kelly

Plot

A large scale terrorist nuclear attack drives Mark and his work colleague Louise down to Mark's old bomb shelter in his flat.
Monologue brief: They are trapped for a number of days, and Mark told Louise that he rescues her after a nuclear attack but in reality he had kidnapped her. Not only did he limit her food rations but raped and tried to kill her. After she was rescued, Louise visits Mark in prison. Her ordeal has disoriented her and she feels disconnected from her friends, family and work colleagues. Despite her hatred of Mark, he is the only one she can really talk to now.

About The Monologue

he talks about this cat who gradually made her way into her home, they become friendly with eachother. One day the cat scratches her and knows it did wrong. The cat again gradually comes to sit on her lap and Louise strangles the cat until and after it is dead.

Many Moons By Alice Birch

Plot

Tracking the lives of four lonely people across a day in London. Essentially a series of monologues, the play follows the progress of each of the characters through one day until a heightened, catastrophic collision.

Monologue Brief

 It is Juniper's birthday and she wonders if she should invite her neighbour, Oliver, to her party. She dreams of some sort of romantic involvement with him. However, later in the day she discovers him in the local park sexually abusing a small child. This speech occurs at the beginning of the play when we are first introduced to Juniper. She speaks directly to the audience.

About The Monologue

Juniper is decribing the perks of her life and what she's like as a person. Their isn't much of a journey.

Characters

Ollie is nervous, fearsomely intelligent, and finds people more mysterious than the constellations. The ripely named Juniper Jessop is an optimistic free spirit "actively looking for love", with the heavens mapped out on her bedroom ceiling. If only their paths could cross ... But then there is Meg, heavily pregnant, her mind sharpened to a scalpel point by disappointment and loneliness. Is Ollie destined to make her heart beat for the first time in years? And what about Meg's neighbour, Robert, who likens his wife to a killer whale, and wants his grave stone to say: "He never did it again"?

Glass Eels By Nell Leysham

 Plot

The play is set on the Somerset Levels one August, and tells the story of Lily who is struggling with the first stirrings of her sexuality whilst living in an all male household.

Character

Lily is drawn to the river near her home where her mother is died and where thousands of eels are also stirring. the only person she can make any connection with is a family friend, Kenneth, who has known her all her life

Monologue Brief

It is night and Lily and Kenneth are down by the river, sharing their stories of loss.

About the Monologue

Lily talks about how her dad kept cadavas in the basement and snuck down to look at them. One night she saw it was her mother. She went up to tell her father and he hit her. She wishes she could forget that night.