About my chosen monologue

The monologue I have chosen to do is taken from the 10 minute play called ‘Richard Fisher’s Funeral.’ This play was written by Kellie Powell and first published in 2007. Kellie Powell has written over 20 plays. ‘Richard Fisher’s Funeral’ has a cast of just two females, Jayna is the step-mother and Drew is the step-daughter. Richard Fisher the deceased man was the husband of Jayna and the father to Drew. The action takes place before his funeral. Drew has had a panic attack and is feeling very distressed; Jayna is trying to persuade her that, now that her father is dead, Drew should forgive her father for his past behavior as they prepare for his funeral. This monologue expresses the feelings and emotions of a young girl around the age of 13 to 14 years old, and how she was scared and threatened by her father. Initially Drew responds in a calm manner, but her frustration grows as she feels she is not being listened to by Jayna. Eventually she explodes in rage and anger, these emotions are directed not only at her step-mother, but also towards her dead father. The monologue gets straight to the point, the first line spoken by Drew being: ‘You don’t get it. I’ve been afraid of my father all my life.’ Immediately this confession leaves the audience feeling sympathy for the young girl and asking themselves questions, which have arisen just from the opening sentence. One of the questions they may be asking themselves could be, ‘why is she scared of her father?’ Wanting to discover more will make the audience pay attention to gather the answers to their unanswered questions and satisfy their curiosity. Kellie Powell has successfully drawn the audience in from the first few words of the play. Further on into the monologue Drew says: ‘Not believing, but knowing… That one day he would kill me. That he’d kill us all.’ This again would be a shock to the audience because a father should be someone who loves you, cares for you and would risk their life for you, where in this case, it seems like the father is trying to end his own daughter’s life. Another question the audience may be asking could be, ‘who else does he want to kill? What does she mean by ‘he’d kill us all?’ Drew goes on to describe one of her earliest memories, her parents were busy decorating the house and her two year old brother, Ricky, tried to help. By doing so, he managed to drop a tin of paint. Although Drew was only four years of age, she remembered the day clearly. The playwright sets the scene in our mind of Richard Fisher’s reaction to this accident, by using emotive words such as, ‘screamed’ and ‘crying’ and ‘yelling.’ Drew’s father punched a hole in the wall due to his fierce temper. Drew has already told us that she ‘spent every waking moment trying to keep him from exploding.’ So we know that his livid reaction to Ricky dropping the paint was not an isolated incident. By reliving this memory, Drew’s anger grows and she finishes the monologue telling Jayna that she does not forgive him and won’t be saying any kind words at his funeral because it would all be a sham.