Hidden Monologue Revealed

THE PLAYWRITING SEMINARS > WORKING > MONOLOGUES > HIDDEN > EXAMPLE > REVEALED

Order 'Sometimes I'm not able to find the trajectory of an idea and carry it through to the end. [My director] is a truffle pig to an idea. He just ruts it out.'

-- Jon Robin Baitz






The Monologue pulled out of the dialogue that was concealing it . . .

				JOAN
	Snow White in Brooks Brothers. And you missed it.

				LARKIN
	I didn't!

				JOAN
	Oh, yes you did. You always do.

		(Pause.)

				LARKIN
	We'd come out of the clinic that morning. Biting cold. I'd 
	forgotten the sound of cold like that. Burgess was oblivious, 
	as always. We could've been in the West Indies for all it 
	mattered. Theory and strategy. The Gobi, Hudson's Bay. He 
	was doing it again with White Alice. 
		(Pause)
	I'm hearing my breath freeze as it comes out. Sun driving 
	off the snow. I could barely see where he was.  After all 
	those weeks inside. No warmup. "Got back your clearance," he 
	says. Just ... Bam. Like it was doing laundry. Which for him 
	I suppose it was. I knew he wasn't doing it for old times, 
	no matter what you think. "This is my ticket to the Home 
	Office." That's how he put it. Like everybody gets one. 
	Above a certain level. Beyond a certain point. So I asked 
	him, What's my ticket? He stops and he looks at me. I know 
	that look. And he says, "You don't need one. You've got me."

				JOAN
			(Gently)
	Do you get it now?

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