New Dramatic Monologue about Grief: A Break from Remembering
If you’re looking for a heartfelt dramatic monologue about grief, check out my new piece, A BREAK FROM REMEMBERING. It runs about 3 minutes long, and while written for a female character, it’s suitable for any gender.
Grief is a subject that keeps bobbing up to the surface in my writing, cushioned by pieces about depressed fairies or mean-girl ducklings or clouds. Grief is the unwelcome visitor that helps us process the sometimes-inconceivable idea of Death or Loss. But while necessary, sometimes it’s so painful that you want to just slam the door in its face. One of the hard things about loss is that all the wonderful things you experienced with your loved one, which might, in theory, bring you some comfort, become memories that cause you to ache so badly for the person that the joy you had is overtaken by intense longing. Those memories may eventually make you smile, but for many people, it takes a while to achieve that balance.
In A BREAK FROM REMEMBERING, Cassie is grieving the loss of the love of her life, Owen, and she needs a break from the consuming grief that swallows up all the good memories she has of him.
Cassie has just run into friends, Meg and Leo, while at a store. Leo mentions hearing a song that reminded him of Owen, and Cassie breaks down in front of them. In the monologue, Cassie and Meg talk privately, as 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.
Here’s an excerpt of the monologue, A BREAK FROM REMEMBERING:
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.