Cassandra...

   and other monologues for girls

      Richard Baines

A monologue.

One person alone on stage.

This is a very specialised form of theatre, known to actors, preachers, Best Men and stand up comedians. It is also known to drama students.

Here are fourteen female voices. They cover a wide range. They are angry, confused and embarrassed. They are comic, pitying and strident. These are voices from modern day Australia, so there is a strong cross-cultural flavour evident.

These monologues have mostly been developed from student discussions and concerns. Some of the pieces are harsh, others are lyrical, but all show problems facing today’s young people. The topics are universal: AIDS, rape, suicide, poor parenting, change, the difficulty of facing up to reality and the need for control. There is violence here. There is humour.

If these pieces are melodramatic at times, well that is the way young folk see the world, and who is to say they are so far off the mark?

Above all, monologues must work as theatre.

Drama students know that the hardest thing about preparing a monologue is finding material that is relevant, that is complete in itself [as opposed to being sliced from a full length play] and that runs for a significant length of time.

Welcome to the Cassandra monolgues.

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