“Clippers” is a 2-minute dramatic/darkly comedic monologue for a male (or female) actor from the one-act play, Seventeen Stitches. In the monologue, Peter speaks to a girl, Rachel, who waits for her turn in an ominous line in in the same abyss-like space as Peter. While she is encouraged by words from her father, Peter has severed ties to his father after he feels his father abandoned him. He shares how a bully had once attacked him in order to steal his bike. When Peter’s father came to his rescue, instead of punishing the bully, he told the bully to take the bike. Peter’s father was never able to afford another bike, and without that bike, Peter has not been able to get away from people or things ever since—until now. Peter holds onto his resentment that his father would not seek revenge on the bully for him.

Click here for the one-act play, Seventeen Stitches, from which this monologue comes.