Free monologues for actors
Texts for a single voice, to speak at an audition, in class or straight to camera. Each one states its length, the role it calls for and what it will ask of you.
- 69 texts
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Drama
12 texts-
The Letter
You always wrote in pencil. “That way you can go back,” you’d say. I kept the last one. I never opened it. As long as it’s folded, you haven’t finished your sentence.
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What I Never Said
No. Stay where you are. For once, I am the one talking. You spent years cutting me off. Finishing my sentences. Deciding that whatever I thought did not matter. And the astonishing part is…
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Wonderful
Wonderful. Truly. You pick tonight. The one night I had actually prepared something. Your timing is an art form. No, no, go on. Explain it to me. I love this part. The part where you…
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O Rage, O Despair
O rage! O despair! O hateful old age! Have I then lived so long only for this disgrace?
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The Empty Chair
You see that chair? Nobody sits there any more. And every evening I lay the table. Two plates. The way we always did. I know. You would tell me to stop. That it serves no purpose. That the…
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The Last Train
You have four minutes left. Don’t say anything. I already know everything you are about to say, and I would rather have the silence: your voice will travel with me more easily than your…
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To Be, or Not to Be
To be, or not to be: that is the question. Whether ’tis nobler in the mind to suffer the slings and arrows of outrageous fortune,
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What Remains
Don’t say anything. Please. Not now, not in that voice. I spent years translating your silences. I’m tired of always being right too late.
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What You Took From Me
You think you have ruined me. Look at me properly. The suit is the same, the shoes have a hole in them, and I am smiling. Nobody smiles like this when they are ruined. You took the company.…
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Farewell to a Son
Don’t turn around too quickly. Give me time to keep your back in my memory. It’s what will stay with me the longest. I won’t tell you to be careful. You won’t be, and I’d have lied to you…
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On My Feet
They told me I would not get up from this. They told me kindly, in those soft voices people keep for announcing disasters. “Rest. Accept it. Grieve.” Grieve for what? For me? I spent six…
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The Queen
They left the way you leave a room where the lamp has just died. Without a sound. Without a glance for the lamp. I reigned for twenty years. Twenty years deciding who ate, who waited, who…
Comedy
13 texts-
Everything’s Fine
No no, everything’s fine. Thanks for asking. Really. So: my car has broken down, my cat has hated me since I called him by my ex’s name, and this morning I sent a love message to my boss…
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Feet Up
No, no, I am not annoyed. Do I look annoyed? I am putting the plates away. Very calmly. Listen how gently I am putting them away. It is simply that, and I say this without any aggression…
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The Diet
The diet starts tomorrow. “Tomorrow” is important. Tomorrow is a day scientifically stronger than me. So tonight, this cake, it’s a farewell. You don’t throw away a farewell. That would be…
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The Opening
Magnificent. Absolutely magnificent. I understand nothing, but with rare intensity. What moves me, you see, is the emptiness. No, the fullness. Well, the full emptiness. Very Japanese. Or…
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I Made You a List
Wait, don’t say anything. I prepared something. Well, “prepared”… I made a list. You know me, when I am nervous I make lists. So. “Reasons you should stay.” Number one: I make a decent…
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I’ve Got This
Everything’s fine. I’ve got this. I have completely got this. Look how I’ve got this. All right, technically, I cried in the frozen aisle earlier. In front of the peas. I do not even know…
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The Chair
I invited the chair to sit down. Out of politeness. It declined. A chair that refuses to sit puts you right back in your place. We’ve lived together for three years. It doesn’t judge me. It…
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The Perfect Plan
Right. Let me explain, because told like that, in the paper, it sounds worse than it was. The plan was perfect to begin with. I said perfect. I had thought of everything: the ring in the…
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The Plant
Right. Let’s be honest, the two of us. You’ve been sulking for three weeks. I’ve tried everything. I put you in the sun. You got too hot. I put you in the shade. You sulked. You’re like my…
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The Wi-Fi
Right. You and me, we don’t know each other yet. Network “CaféLumière_2”. The “2”. Never trust a network that already has an ex. Password. I type it. You think about it. You think about it…
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The Nose Speech
Ah no! It’s a bit short, young man! You could have said… oh, Lord!… any number of things… Aggressive: “Sir, if I had such a nose, I’d have it amputated on the spot!”
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The Speech
Right. The big day. My brother’s wedding. I am the best man. Three hundred people in front of me, a microphone, and one mission: not to be that guy. You know the one, the one people still…
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The Speech
Dear all. Dearest all. Dear… deaR. Right. Let me start over. Good evening. I’m the best man. Well, “the” best man: there are four of us, but I’m the one talking. The others got scared.
Romantic comedy
5 texts-
The Little Notes
“The milk is yours, not mine, I’m just being polite.” …He signs his sticky notes. Who signs a sticky note about milk? This one: “I fixed the handle. It squeaked. It made me sad for you.”…
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Cold Feet
“Hi.” No. Too flat. “Hiii.” No, that sounds like I’ve known you ten years. This is our second time meeting. “You look gorgeous.” Too soon. “You’re… here.” That’s terrible, “you’re here.” Of…
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The List
I made a list. Don’t smile. When something is too big for me, I make lists. And you are too big for me. One: you sing off-key, with a confidence that should be illegal.
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The Toast
So. I was supposed to give a speech about the couple. I’ve got anecdotes. Very funny ones. About them. But there’s someone, at table three, who’s been looking at me since the meal began as…
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The Voicemail
Hi, it’s me. Well, “me”: you’ll recognise my voice, I hope, otherwise this message is very awkward. Anyway. I wanted to ask if… someday… like soon… or not, no pressure at all… you’d want to…
Tragedy
6 texts-
The Prophecy
It was all foretold to me. Every detail. And I laughed. One always laughs, at the beginning. I thought I was cleverer than fate. I fled the city where the oracle said I would strike; I took…
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The Name
You want me to disown my name. To kneel, to beg for mercy, and in exchange to be allowed to live. To live! As though it were a gift, when it is bought at the price of everything that makes…
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The Poison
Smile. Go on smiling. You, raising your cup, have no idea that I know every drop of what you have poured into me for twenty years. I said nothing. One says nothing, while one is preparing.…
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Your Hand
Give me your hand. One last time. Not to keep you, I know you cannot keep what the gods are claiming, but to carry with me, where I am going, the warmth of a living thing. They will say I…
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I Walk
Do not hold me back. Your hands are gentle, your intentions are good, and that is exactly what makes them dangerous. Gentleness, at this hour, is a slow poison. I know what is waiting for…
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The Oracle Said Nothing
I walked three days to question it. Three days without sleep, without food, driven by that hunger which is greater than all the others: to know. And at the altar, when I put my question,…
Absurdist
6 texts-
Give Me Back Tuesday
I would like to speak to whoever is in charge. Of Time. Yes, of Time. There has to be somebody in charge; there is somebody in charge of everything, except the important things, funnily…
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The Queue
I received a letter this morning. From myself. Dated tomorrow. It said: “Don’t worry, everything is going to be fine.” And that is when I started worrying: if everything was going to be…
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I’m Waiting
I was told to wait here. So I am waiting. It has been, hold on while I work it out, it has been eleven years. Eleven years, three months, and two particularly long Tuesdays. People walking…
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My Shadow
My shadow left last night. Without a word. It peeled itself off my feet while I was asleep and went out through the window. At first I was offended. We have lived together since I was born,…
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The Form
I was asked to fill in a form in order to earn the right to fill in the form. I found the logic impeccable, and I said so at the counter. The counter did not appreciate being congratulated.…
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The Conference of Objects
Ladies and gentlemen of the objects, I declare the great annual assembly open. I see the toaster has made the journey. Still burnt, I observe. Good day to you. First item on the agenda:…
Classical
6 texts-
The Confession
Must I confess it to you? My heart can no longer hide the turmoil your first glance plunged me into. I fought, believe me; I made a rampart of reason every day, and broke it every night. I…
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Honour and Heart
What! Am I thought beaten because I hold my tongue? You take for a confession what is nothing but contempt. Know that if I yield the floor a moment, it is not out of weakness, and still…
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Remorse
You speak to me softly, and that voice is killing me; for a reproach that is shouted can be fought, argued with; but yours, so gentle, slips in and takes hold, and judges me the better for…
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The Departure
It is done. I have chosen. Let heaven be my judge. Too long I drifted between a duty and a vow, listening by turns to blood and to the heart, like a ship with no master between two…
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The Plea
I come, no longer as a master; I come as a supplicant; I laid my pride down on the threshold of this door. Look at what is left, and see what is held by a hand that trembled at holding so…
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The Throne
They offer me a crown, and every eye is on me, watching my face for a flicker of desire. They will see a calm king; they will take for their example this marble where no one reads what I…
Thriller
7 texts-
One Step Too Many
For three nights I’ve heard footsteps. When I walk, they walk. When I stop… they stop a fraction of a second too late. At first I told myself: the echo. An old house breathes. But an echo…
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The Baby Monitor
3:10 a.m. The monitor woke me. Usually it’s crying. This time, it was a voice. Soft. Singing. I told myself: the radio, interference, the neighbour. Except the voice knew the lullaby. OUR…
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The Burglar
Cased it for three weeks. Nobody on Thursdays. Alarm dead. Too easy, almost insulting. The safe is where I was told. Behind the painting. Just as I was told. Exactly as I was told.
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The Call
No, listen to me. I came home and the door was locked. Double-locked. That’s the problem. Because I never double-lock. Ever. It’s not a gesture I have.
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The Driver
Fare at 11:40 p.m. He got in without a word. Destination: the forest, by the back road. Fine. He hasn’t moved for twenty minutes. Not a sigh. Even people who sleep breathe, they shift. Not…
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The Voicemail
A message. From him. Received this morning, 6:12. Except… the funeral was Tuesday. I was there. I held the cord of the coffin.
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The Recorded Confession
If you’re watching this, it’s because I didn’t have the courage to say it to your face. So I’m telling a camera. It’s more cowardly, I know. The night of the 3rd, it wasn’t an accident. I…
Supernatural
7 texts-
The Door
This door wasn’t here yesterday. I’ve lived here six years. I know my walls. This hallway has two doors: the bedroom, the bathroom. Since this morning, it has three. The handle is warm. A…
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The Clock
The clock started going back on Tuesday. First a minute. Then an hour. This morning it went back a year. And the world around it follows. The crack in the ceiling sealed itself. The expired…
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The Garden
I planted these seeds yesterday. Yesterday. And this morning the tomatoes are ripe. Red. Heavy. A whole summer, in one night. The apple tree at the back has lost its leaves. It’s in autumn.…
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The Mirror
It started on Tuesday. A wave of the hand, and in the mirror, the hand follows. A touch too late. Half a second. The kind of detail it takes you three days to admit to yourself. So I ran…
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The Photograph
In this photo, there are three of us. Me, my sister, and our mother. Taken the summer I turned ten. Except, the day before yesterday, there were four. There was a man, on the right, his…
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The Tenant
Just moved in? Welcome. I’ve lived here for… a long time. A very long time. I’ve lost count. You can’t hear me, can you. It’s always the same with the new ones. At first, they can’t hear…
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Tomorrow’s Messages
Five messages. All from the same number. My number. Received… tomorrow. The phone says “tomorrow, 2:03 p.m.” It’s not possible, and yet there it is. “Don’t take the car on Thursday. Trust…
Satire
7 texts-
The Password
“Your password must contain an uppercase letter.” There. Done. “A lowercase letter.” Of course. “A number.” Fine. “A special character.” I’ll put an exclamation mark, because that’s what I…
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The Recycling
Right. The yoghurt pot. Plastic? Yes. So yellow. But the lid is aluminium. So… divorce. Each to its own bin. There’s yoghurt left at the bottom. Do I have to wash it? Using drinking water…
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Authenticity
Hey you guys! So today, super spontaneous video, totally unplanned, just me, real life. I just woke up like this, no filter… well, the “natural dawn” filter, but that’s basically the same.
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The 8:12 Train
The 8:12 train is announced with a delay of one whole lifetime. It says so on the board. In very calm letters. I asked the board if it was joking. It displayed “no.” Then “please wait.” I…
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The Assistant
Assistant. Turn off the living room light. …Just the living room. No. The living room. ONE word. Just one. “Living room.” You know thirty languages but not my kitchen.
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The Survey
“On a scale of 1 to 10, would you recommend our emergency department to a friend?” …You don’t pick the ER like a restaurant. “Come on, I know a place.” “Did the waiting time meet your…
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The Instructions
Step one: “Insert tenon A into mortise B.” There is no tenon A. There’s a bag labelled “A” containing a B. Step two: “If step one succeeded, go to step three.” And if it failed? Silence.…