Monologues for the "Character Actor" type
Classic monologues matched to the "Character Actor" acting type.
19 monologues
Shylock
The Merchant of Venice · William Shakespeare
«He hath disgraced me, and hindered me half a million; laughed at my losses, mocked at my gains, scorned my…»
'Hath not a Jew eyes?' — pain, dignity and the logic of revenge. Living grievance, not pathos.
Christy Mahon
The Playboy of the Western World · J. M. Synge
«It's little you'll think if my love's a poacher's, or an earl's itself, when you'll feel my two hands…»
A lyrical wooing of Pegeen: musical speech, charm and Irish lilt — material for organic rhythm.
Don John
Much Ado About Nothing · William Shakespeare
«I had rather be a canker in a hedge than a rose in his grace, and it better fits my blood to be disdained of…»
A blunt manifesto of the plain-dealing villain; take it for the dark self-irony and menace beneath feigned restraint.
Domitius Enobarbus
Antony and Cleopatra · William Shakespeare
«I will tell you. The barge she sat in, like a burnish'd throne, Burn'd on the water: the poop was beaten…»
The famous 'barge' description of Cleopatra: sensual word-painting — play a storyteller intoxicated by the very thing he describes.
Falstaff
Henry IV, Part 1 · William Shakespeare
«'Tis not due yet; I would be loath to pay him before his day. What need I be so forward with him that calls…»
The famous 'catechism' on honour — play it as a live argument with himself, irony and cowardice masked as common sense.
Hotspur
Henry IV, Part 1 · William Shakespeare
«My liege, I did deny no prisoners. But I remember, when the fight was done, When I was dry with rage and…»
Hotspur defending himself before the king — a hot-tempered, contemptuous account of the foppish lord; great for temperament and biting irony.
The Bastard (Philip Faulconbridge)
King John · William Shakespeare
«Mad world! mad kings! mad composition! John, to stop Arthur's title in the whole, Hath willingly departed…»
A cynical anatomy of Commodity's grip on the world — play the witty bitterness that finally confesses its own price.
Paulina
The Winter's Tale · William Shakespeare
«What studied torments, tyrant, hast for me? What wheels? racks? fires? what flaying? boiling? In leads or…»
Paulina hurls the queen's death at the tyrant — righteous fury unleashed; build relentlessly to the curse.
Malvolio
Twelfth Night · William Shakespeare
«M, O, A, I; this simulation is not as the former: and yet, to crush this a little, it would bow to me, for…»
Malvolio decodes the forged letter and convinces himself Olivia loves him — vanity played dead-straight is the comedy.
Lady Bracknell
The Importance of Being Earnest · Oscar Wilde
«The line is immaterial. Mr. Worthing, I confess I feel somewhat bewildered by what you have just told me. To…»
The iconic hand-bag put-down — play monumental self-assurance and lethal social logic with total deadpan gravity.
Sir Peter Teazle
The School for Scandal · Richard Brinsley Sheridan
«When an old Bachelor takes a young Wife—what is He to expect—'Tis now six months since Lady Teazle made me…»
A grumbling confessional opener for an old husband: play the self-mockery and the tenderness he refuses to admit.
Joseph Surface
The School for Scandal · Richard Brinsley Sheridan
«But my dear Lady Teazle 'tis your own fault if you suffer it—when a Husband entertains a groundless suspicion…»
The hypocrite's famous sophistry talking another man's wife toward betrayal by 'logic': silky charm over cold calculation.
Bosola
The Duchess of Malfi · John Webster
«He and his brother are like plum-trees that grow crooked over standing-pools; they are rich and o'erladen…»
The malcontent mercenary on the ingratitude of patrons and the cast-off soldier's fate; corrosive, biting bitterness.
Alfred Doolittle
Pygmalion · George Bernard Shaw
«Don’t say that, Governor. Don’t look at it that way. What am I, Governors both? I ask you, what am I? I’m one…»
A dazzling comic sophist's set-piece on the “undeserving poor” — play the charm and cheeky logic of a born chancer.
Henry Higgins
Pygmalion · George Bernard Shaw
«Well, I haven’t. I find that the moment I let a woman make friends with me, she becomes jealous, exacting,…»
The self-satisfied bachelor-reasoner on women — dry wit, self-irony, crisp epigrammatic rhythm.
Caliban
The Tempest · William Shakespeare
«I must eat my dinner. This island's mine, by Sycorax my mother, Which thou takest from me. When thou camest…»
Play the enslaved native's grievance: from tender memory of kindness to a burning curse over stolen freedom.
Launce
Two Gentlemen of Verona · William Shakespeare
«Nay, 'twill be this hour ere I have done weeping; all the kind of the Launces have this very fault. I have…»
A solo comic turn: he re-enacts his family's tearful farewell using shoes and a hat, cursing his unfeeling dog. Pure clowning with props.
Katharina
The Taming of the Shrew · William Shakespeare
«Fie, fie! unknit that threatening unkind brow, And dart not scornful glances from those eyes, To wound thy…»
The famous final speech on a wife's duty — play it as submission, irony, or veiled defiance.
Bottom
A Midsummer Night's Dream · William Shakespeare
«When my cue comes, call me, and I will answer: my next is, 'Most fair Pyramus.' Heigh-ho! Peter Quince!…»
Play Bottom's utterly sincere attempt to grasp the ungraspable — the comedy comes from his total self-belief, never from mugging for laughs.