Monologues and Duologues from the Plays of Ruth Wolff

By Ruth Wolff

This is a treasure trove of scenes and speeches from a treasure trove of plays.

Monologues and Duologues from the Plays of Ruth Wolff is a collection of scenes and speeches excerpted from the nineteen plays by Ruth Wolff published in Notable Women and a Few Equally Notable Men and From Faustiana to the Fall of Athens.

Designed to be used for auditions, studio work, acting classes, and private study, the scenes are of many lengths and in many moods. There are solo speeches for men and for women, scenes between two men, between two women, and between one man and one woman. There are scenes for characters young and old, weak and strong, tragic and humorous, some people who lived in the past and others drawn from contemporary life.

It is a generous compendium of special moments from special plays.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Xlibris US
• Release date: Jul 28, 2017
• ISBN: 9781543436587

Ruth Wolff

Ruth Wolff’s plays have been seen around the world in many languages. Her play, THE ABDICATION, premiered at the Theatre Royal Bath, produced by the Bristol Old Vic. It has subsequently been produced internationally. Wolff wrote the screenplay for the Warner Bros film of THE ABDICATION which starred Liv Ullmann and Peter Finch. Her play SARAH IN AMERICA premiered at the Kennedy Center starring Lilli Palmer, directed by Sir Robert Helpmann. Wolff wrote the screenplay for a film about Sarah Bernhardt's early life, THE INCREDIBLE SARAH, which starred Glenda Jackson. Her play EMPRESS OF CHINA premiered in New York at the Pan Asian Repertory Theatre starring Tina Chen. Among its other notable productions are those in Todi, Italy and in Sydney, Australia. Her play THE SECOND MRS WILSON premiered at the Barter Theater, the State Theatre of Virginia. Her play AVIATORS premiered at the New Jersey Repertory Theatre. Her play JOSHUA SLOCUM SAILING ALONE AROUND THE WORLD premiered at the Rhode Island Shakespeare Theatre.

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Copyright © 2017 by Ruth Wolff.

Library of Congress Control Number:      2017910953

ISBN:                      Hardcover                      978-1-5434-3660-0

                                 Softcover                        978-1-5434-3659-4

                                eBook                              978-1-5434-3658-7

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the copyright owner.

Any people depicted in stock imagery provided by Thinkstock are models, and such images are being used for illustrative purposes only.

Certain stock imagery © Thinkstock.

Rev. date: 09/11/2017

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Speeches and scenes in this book are for audition, study and class work only. If they are to be used where admission is charged, permission for use and applicable fees must be requested from the publishers.

These Monologues and Duologues are excerpted from the nineteen plays by Ruth Wolff published in NOTABLE WOMEN AND A FEW EQUALLY NOTABLE MEN and FROM FAUSTIANA TO THE FALL OF ATHENS published by Broadway Play Publishing. For information on the collections, to order PDFs of the individual plays or for permission to produce the plays, contact Broadway Play Publishing Inc. at broadwayplaypub.com.

For the acting edition of THE ABDICATION and for permission to produce this play contact Dramatic Publishing Inc. at dramaticpublishing.com

CONTENTS

MONOLOGUE

PLAYS

From NOTABLE WOMEN – AND A FEW EQUALLY NOTABLE MEN

THE ABDICATION

HALLIE

EMPRESS OF CHINA

SARAH IN AMERICA

ELEANOR OF AQUITAINE

JOSHUA SLOCUM SAILING ALONE AROUND THE WORLD

From FROM FAUSTIANA TO THE FALL OF ATHENS

HOTEL VICTORY

THE SKY POOL

DUOLOGUES

From NOTABLE WOMEN – AND A FEW EQUALLY NOTABLE MEN

THE ABDICATION

THE PERFECT MARRIAGE

EMPRESS OF CHINA

ELEANOR OF AQUITAINE

GEORGE AND FREDERIC

THE SECOND MRS WILSON

From FROM FAUSTIANA TO THE FALL OF ATHENS

FAUSTIANA

ARABIC TWO

AVIATORS

THE SHAKESPEARE ROAD

BUFFALOES

THE ARDENT PHILANTHROPIST

STILL LIFE WITH APPLES

THE FALL OF ATHENS

MONOLOGUES FOR WOMEN

HALLIE

EMPRESS OF CHINA

SARAH IN AMERICA

ELEANOR OF AQUITAINE

THE SKY POOL

MONOLOGUES FOR MEN

THE ABDICATION

JOSHUA SLOCUM

HOTEL VICTORY

DUOLOGUES FOR ONE MAN, ONE WOMAN

THE ABDICATION

THE PERFECT MARRIAGE

EMPRESS OF CHINA

ELEANOR OF AQUITAINE

GEORGE AND FREDERIC

THE SECOND MRS WILSON

ARABIC TWO

AVIATORS

THE SHAKESPEARE ROAD

THE ARDENT PHILANTHROPIST

STILL LIFE WITH APPLES

THE FALL OF ATHENS

DUOLOGUES FOR TWO WOMEN

GEORGE AND FREDERIC

BUFFALOES

DUOLOGUES FOR TWO MEN

FAUSTIANA

THE FALL OF ATHENS

ABOUT THE PLAYWRIGHT

INTRODUCTION

Christina of Sweden’s speech at the end of Act One of THE ABDICATION has been used so many times as a monologue for auditions that I can’t count them. This is interesting because it’s actually a duologue. Actresses using the speech tend to ignore the fact that Christina’s Prime Minister, Oxenstierna, is in the room.

There are many monologues and duologues in the nineteen plays of mine which Broadway Play Publishing has published in two volumes. It was suggested that I excerpt some scenes and speeches and make them available for auditions and for scene study in schools, colleges, studios and other places where actors hone their craft. So here they are, the majority exactly as they appear in the plays. A few have been very slightly changed for the purposes of this volume.

Here are parts for older men and younger men, older women and younger women, a scrapping young couple and a scrapping older couple, scenes for two men, scenes for two women, a rebellious girl about to make the mistake of her life and an older woman whose mind is failing. There is a recessive man and a domineering woman. There is a young woman facing her alter-ego and a middle-aged man facing ruin in his career. There are veterans suffering from mental and physical war wounds and a couple scarred from wounds in the war of love. There is the Empress of China at the barricades and Eleanor of Aquitaine headed toward creating the Courts of Love. There is Sarah Bernhardt facing tragedy and Frederic Chopin facing life without George Sand. There are Mary Shelley and her husband battling out their marriage at the gates of heaven and hell and Woodrow Wilson battling with his wife about entering the League of Nations. There is Hallie Flanagan confronting the House Un-American Activities Committee and Joshua Slocum confronting sailing around the Horn. There is Faust in guilt and Creon in fury, a priest in agony and a queen in triumph. There are moods comical, tragical, whimsical, magical, in short, a part to suit everybody.

I’ve written introductions to each of these scenes to provide context. But of course each character’s emotions and motivations can be more deeply understood if the play in which they appear is read in its entirety.

My admiration for what actors do is infinite. These excerpts are an offering – a tribute – from the characters I’ve written – and from me.

Ruth Wolff

THE ABDICATION - ACT I                                Duologue - 1M, 1F

Christina of Sweden, disturbed by the conflicting needs of being born a woman yet having to function as a man, finds herself so torn apart, socially, psychologically and spiritually, that she abdicates, converts to Catholicism and comes to spend the rest of her life in Rome. Forced to confess her life to Cardinal Azzolino, she relates scenes from her past. In this scene which ends the first act, Azzolino insists she at last tell him why she gave up the crown. She conjures up for him her confrontation with her Prime Minister, Axel Oxenstierna – the moment when she announces her life-changing decision.

* * *

CHRISTINA: I am Queen of Sweden. By reason of my exalted rank and privilege, I am allowed anything I want. I am allowed to marry a man I do not love. I am allowed, by night, to submit to God-knows-what idiotic fumblings and horrors, and by day to rule the fumbler and the entire world. I am allowed, after these exquisite nocturnal pleasures, to blow up like a cow, and stumble around, fingers, face, breasts and paunch enormous. And after months of this comic self-entertainment I am allowed to bring forth, in unimaginable pain, a dwarf, a monster, a vegetable, or, if by chance I am supremely fortunate, another creature like myself.

OXENSTIERNA: Ordinary women do this daily.

CHRISTINA: I am not ordinary! If there is one thing you have taught me since I could hear, it is the specialness of me. Kings rule – and indulge between the sheets in every sort of pleasure. And then they go off to battle and joyfully await news of the arrivals of their sons. I would be happy to be a King and do all those things. But I will not submit to being boarded by a jackass in order to blow up like a mountain and erupt again and again in excruciating torment for the State! Find me a man who will bear my children!

OXENSTIERNA: Christina –

CHRISTINA: Find me a battalion of men who will each let me have my way with them and watch me ride out of their lives forever at the dawn. Find me a chance encounter on a hill where I pursue and he takes the consequences.

OXENSTIERNA: Christina, you’re asking the impossible –

CHRISTINA: I am Queen! I can have anything I want! – And I tell you I will not submit my body and my mind to what is asked of me.

OXENSTIERNA: But if you love –

CHRISTINA: I loved once. I was betrayed.

OXENSTIERNA: You will again.

CHRISTINA: I will never give myself to a man. Never! ... I will never give myself to a man – (Suddenly she turns and faces AZZOLINO squarely) – unless it be to you.

(AZZOLINO looks at her. Their eyes hold.)

BLACKOUT

END ACT ONE

* * *

THE ABDICATION - Act II                                Monologue - 1M

Christina of Sweden has given up her crown, converted to Catholicism and come to stay at the Vatican. Before the Pope will accept her into the faith she must be interrogated by Cardinal Azzolino. Over the space of many days she has confessed the innermost secrets of her life and, in the process, has fallen in love with him. Now Christina presses Azzolino to get him to confess how he feels about her. He surprises her by suddenly falling to his knees before her.

* * *

AZZOLINO: Bless me, father, for I have sinned. I have possessed a woman. I have given myself to the pleasures of the flesh. I have been consumed by lust. I am a fallen priest.

For a priest to have a woman, that is not uncommon, is it? It is how he has her, isn’t it, that determines the degree of sin. ... A whore for a sudden need – that isn’t pretty, perhaps, but it might be pardonable. A long continuing alliance with a woman – that is not sanctioned, but surely it must find some approbation in the eye of God. ... But neither of these is the way I loved. (He tightens his grip on her as his tone becomes more impassioned.) The way I had a woman was to be had by her. My love wasn’t love, it was a consuming fire. An unconquerable obsession! A need for her – beyond my need for God. ... That was my experience of love: I was debased, my mind and spirit enslaved. I was possessed by living demons! While I loved, I was no use to God, the Church, myself, or anyone! To be with her, embraced by her, within her, I would even have surrendered up my life.

(She starts to speak. He interrupts her.)

I am not finished! ...