A BREAK FROM REMEMBERING
A monologue
By Tara Meddaugh
Cassie is at a store when she runs into her friends, Meg and Leo. Leo mentions hearing a song that reminded him of Cassie’s recently deceased love-of-her-life, Owen, and Cassie breaks down in front of them. Feeling bad, Leo apologizes and walks to another part of the store to allow Cassie and Meg to talk privately. In the monologue, Cassie expresses how she can’t hear memories about Owen yet because they don’t bring her any joy right now—only pain. She wants other people to remember him and share thoughts and memories of him—but with other people, not her; right now, she needs a break from remembering him, just in order to survive.
DETAILS:
Genre: Dramatic
Running time: Approximately 2.5-3 minutes
Cast: Female (Any gender)
Age range: late teens-any age adult
Setting: A store
Time period: contemporary
EXCERPT BELOW
CASSIE
I know that as soon as you talk about Owen, my face gets all red—I can’t help it. And I start crying and look away, or walk away even, and…I basically can’t have a conversation about him at all—and it makes you think I don’t want to remember him… And… that’s not it… Well…
(pause)
It kind of is. Sometimes.
(pause)
Does that make me seem like… like the worst person in the world? Shouldn’t I want people to talk about him to me? And share all these little details that they remember – like, how Leo just said he heard Stairway to Heaven on the radio and it reminded him of how Owen played it on his guitar and… I know he’s sharing something nice, but I just can’t….hear that.
(pause)
My head and heart fill up with so much…I want to say love, but it’s not. Because Owen’s not here for me to love anymore, so my love is, like…It’s like poison, Meg. It’s like…poisoned love. And I can’t—END OF EXCERPT Click below for the complete 3-minute dramatic monologue, A Break from Remembering.