Monologues for the "Everyman" type
Classic monologues matched to the "Everyman" acting type.
12 monologues
Jaques
As You Like It · William Shakespeare
«All the world's a stage, And all the men and women merely players: They have their exits and their entrances;…»
'All the world's a stage…' — the seven ages of man: a thinker's irony and observation.
Eliza Doolittle
Pygmalion · George Bernard Shaw
«And I can be civil and kind to people, which is more than you can. Aha! That's done you, Henry Higgins, it…»
Finding her own voice and dignity against Higgins: strength, hurt and liberation.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
Fool
King Lear · William Shakespeare
«This is a brave night to cool a courtezan. I'll speak a prophecy ere I go: When priests are more in word than…»
The Fool's mock prophecy in the storm — play it with bitter irony, balancing clowning and prophecy.
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.
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.
Launcelot Gobbo
The Merchant of Venice · William Shakespeare
«Certainly my conscience will serve me to run from this Jew my master. The fiend is at mine elbow and tempts…»
A classic comic-servant inner trial: play the fiend and conscience as two distinct living voices pulling him physically in opposite directions, and let the final 'I will run' land as a triumphant verdict — the trap is reciting it as one even narration instead of a fought-out debate.