Contempary Monologue Blog 1

For my contempory monologue I picked the character of Dido Elizabeth Belle from the play 'The Wardrobe' by Sam Holcroft. I performed the character of Dido Elizabeth Belle before and I know that character inside and out. Dido is a real person who was born on the year 1761 and died on the year 1804. She was an illegitimate daughter of Admiral Sir John Lindsay and an enslaved African woman known as Maria Belle. Dido was sent to live in the household of William Murray, 1st Earl of Mansfield, who was Lindsay's uncle and thus Dido's great-uncle.


The painting above was drawn 1779, formerly attributed to Johann Zoffany, depicts Dido alongside her cousin Elizabeth, carrying exotic fruit and wearing a turban with a large feather. Dido is portrayed with extraordinary vivacity, while the depiction of her cousin is stiff and formalized.

The reason why I love this monolgoue and have chosen to do it for my audition speech is because it has a range of emotions throughout the piece. What I have to remember when performing this speech is that Dido is only 13 years old and the way I sometimes play it makes her seem a lot older, so the beginning paragraph is when I bring out her inner-child and gradually during the speech it gets darker as Dido digs deeper into her life.

Dido comes from a time where everybody knew who they were and knew what they were allowed to do or say or wear or act. Dido was a confused girl who was forced to grow up too quickly and didn't know who she was. As you see in the picture above Dido was mixed race but because she wasn't a servant she couldn't talk to them and because she wasn't white she couldn't join her uncle's guests for dinner and during the monologue you see how much this effects her even though she never shows it to the world. That's why she feels so comfortable talking to God.

I made the beginning paragraph light-hearted as that was how I felt to perform it. The lines also helped me set the mood. For example, "Thank you most especially for the fat pigeon that comes to rest in the old oak. I have named him Charlie. Fat Charlie." I made the line light-hearted by doing a face at the end of the sentence - portraying fat Charlie and bobbing my head up and down like pigeons do, which creates amusement in the monologue. It's such a simple line but it touches you as you realise all the things you take for granted.

During the monologue Dido has become angrier and angrier and shows it by the things she says, "Even though my illegitimacy and the colour of my skin mean that I am not eligible to eat with the family at the table, or join their guests for dinner..." Although I say this angrily I also glance down as I say it as I want the audience to feel pity for Dido who is being excluded from so many things for something that she has no control over or can't change. So it comes as a shock to the audience when she smacks her hand against the wardrobe as although they could see she was angry it was tamed anger until that shocking outburst. Previously when I performed the monologue I did slam my hand against the wardrobe or floor but this time I went more emotional angry then violent to see the different dynamic.