It was such hard decision to choose the right monologue. I had been thinking a lot about it and after long hours of research I was 100% sure I will go for Shakespeare as there is a saying `if the actor can act Shakespeare he/she can act anything`. And I totally agree with it after experiencing performming Caliban from The Tempest which was a huge challenge for me. It`s not that I did not understand what I was reading at first, the character itself has got completely different manners than all other characters I performed before. So my classic monologue is from Merchant of Venice by Shakespeare. Since last year I had an eye on this play. It is very romantic as well as challenging. I have chosen Portia as she was the best typo that I was looking for. Pleasant, inspiring, lovely Portia. A young princess looking for a husband. But everything is not as simple as it looks like. Her dead father made an order for his daughter to marry the man who will be smart enough to answer the question hiding in three different baskets. And after a long, unsuccessful search for the one here he comes, stunning Basanio, ready to conquer Portia`s heart. Portia fells in love with him at first sight. She wishes he will answer all question and they could live happily ever after.
PORTIA
(to BASSANIO) I pray you, tarry. Pause a day or two
Before you hazard, for in choosing wrong
I lose your company. Therefore forbear awhile.
There’s something tells me—but it is not love—
I would not lose you, and you know yourself
Hate counsels not in such a quality.
But lest you should not understand me well—
And yet a maiden hath no tongue but thought—
I would detain you here some month or two
Before you venture for me. I could teach you
How to choose right, but I am then forsworn.
So will I never be. So may you miss me.
But if you do, you’ll make me wish a sin,
That I had been forsworn. Beshrew your eyes,
They have o'erlooked me and divided me.
One half of me is yours, the other half yours—
Mine own, I would say. But if mine, then yours,
And so all yours. Oh, these naughty times
Put bars between the owners and their rights!
And so, though yours, not yours. Prove it so.
Let Fortune go to hell for it, not I.
 |
| The look of innocent Portia. |
To eke it and to draw it out in length,
To stay you from election.
It was really hard to understand the meaning of nearly every line so I googled it and ended up analysing it at NoFearShakespeare.sparknotes.co.uk which was very helpful. Basically, it is translated to a modern language which makes it easy to understand to nowadays people. For instance, no one says `I pray you tarry, pause a day or two,` in modern language it sounds as simple as `Please wait a bit` or `don`t rush`. Nevertheless, Shakespeare is Shakespeare and you cannot change anything about it. He is just fabulous as well as makes you sweat really hard for it which is not a bad thing. I believe, if it challenges it makes you go forward.
Contemporary Monologue
I admit, I struggled with that one even more than with the classical one. It was really hard to choose the right monologue that I really like. I had started looking for modern monologue since early summer. I orderer a few modern plays from amazon and wasn`t really happy with them. One is called Bunny another Chapel Street. Actually, I expected something slightly different because both stories and main characters are similar. The story type is very narrative and reminds of a girl`s diary where she explain how everything happened not giving the right clue if it`s happening right now or it already happened in the past. That is because past and present simple is mixed together. However, I decided to go for a Chapel Street one. According the language they use the action takes place in Liverpool. The play is about an English teenage girl name Kirsty and the problems she faces. Kirsty is an opposite version of Portia. She is ignorant, rude, impolite, floozy girls. But at the same time she`s quite lost in her feeling and thoughts as a normal teenage girl. Furthermore, Kirsty has indecent fantasies of her best friend Gemma`s dad which is 30 years older. She feels he is mature enough for her compare to these street boys who act like 3 year olds in kinder garden.
Kirsty and her friend are going out and need to get some drinks. So they walk over the one of these small shops near her friend`s house. They don`t have ID on them as they are only 16 so they decide that Kirsty has to go inside because she looks older and so she does.
So Gemma hides behind the corner and I`m gettin sweaty as I walk inside
The shelves all seem really high and the guy behind the counter looks at me.
He`s a little Pakistani Or Uzbekistani or something astani boy
With beady eyes and dirty hair. I freeze.
I don`t know what the fuck to do after about 5 seconds of freezing
So I give him a quick, awkward smile and slink off behind the shelves.
Fuck, I`m nervous. The list on the palm on my hand was blurred. My sweat
Was like blurring my writing. I shit one and just grab a six-pack of Carling
and a half bottle of Jack Daniels. I walked over the counter all-slow,
like proper slow and confident like Deborah Meaden on Dragons` Don
and I put it all on the table. I don`t want to look at him. Fuck it. I think
I`ve got to be confident or I`ll give it away so I look him right in the eye
and he`s not even looking at me he`s just staring. Just staring right
 |
| The look of wild Kirsty. |
`How much?` I ask him and I like use a little wink to make him think I`m game,
so it`s more like `How much?` (with an over-exaggerated wink) Yano? He`s just like
`£12.55, anything else?` And I`m like `No.` And we`are away into the ninght with
six-pack of Carling and half a bottle of Jack Daniels!
I researched about Deborah Meaden because I ha dno clue who she is. Deborah is famous as she runs multimillion family holiday company as well as embodies the dragon in the Dragons` Den which is shown on BBC TWO TV program. It is important to note that she is the only female dragon on the show which makes her look even more fascinating. Peter Jones, Theo Pahitis and Meaden are the biggest business investors on the show.
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