Zoo (and Twelve Comic Monologues for Women) (NHB Modern Plays) by Lily Bevan

Author:Lily Bevan [Bevan, Lily]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781788503259
Publisher: Nick Hern Books

TWELVE COMIC MONOLOGUES FOR WOMEN

(and one for luck)

Introduction

I started writing monologues in 2010 for the show Avocado, co-written with my dear friend, American writer Bekah Brunstetter, performed at the King’s Head, London, and as a reading at Playwrights Horizons, New York. Some monologues published here are from Avocado, including Opera, where Welsh Hayley has cheated on her boyfriend, and A Levels with Sarah the eternally disappointed mother. In Avocado, we also met Stuart, with whom Hayley had cheated, and Philip, Sarah’s long-suffering son.

My solo show Pheasant Plucker (performed at the Edinburgh Fringe and Bush Theatre; published by Samuel French 2017) has ten interlinking monologues including a yoga teacher over fond of metaphors and a falconer in a life crisis. Some of these ended up in my BBC Radio 4 monologue series Talking to Strangers, co-written with Sally Phillips, where each character we meet is talking to a stranger. Thank you to BBC producer, Sam Bryant, and writer, Sally Phillips, for their excellent funny suggestions on my monologues.

Sally and I started with a live show, Dances with Dogs, with a brilliant cast: Nicola Cross, Jeany Spark, Emma Wilson, Maggie Service and Mike Wozniak. Sam Bryant helped edit our pieces brilliantly, and it was a great learning experience developing and performing them in London, Edinburgh and finally on the BBC with another brilliant cast: Emma Thompson, Olivia Colman, Jessica Hynes, Sinéad Matthews, Joel Fry, Steve Evetts, as well as me and Sally. We have since performed monologues at the Orange Tree Theatre with Pandora Colin, Rufus Wright, Mike Wozniak and Tommy Jessop. To celebrate their publication they will be performed at VAULT Festival by me, Pandora Colin, Ann Odeke, Heddyd Dylan and Charity Wakefield, directed by lovely Hamish MacDougall.

Olivia Colman recorded Pirate Café, which I wrote in a hurry for her. The first time I ever met her was in a small BBC studio, which was amazing for me and maybe a little weird for her. She said ‘Arrrrrrrgh’ beautifully. I hope myself one day to open a café called ‘Shiver Me Croissants’.

Thank you to all these fantastic actors and everyone who has helped along the way, and thank you to the wise eyes, ears and noggins of my dear family and friends, especially Lorna Beckett, Pandora Colin and Jeany Spark who have read many wild drafts and answered many phone calls and SOS messages about my writing to provide clever editing, structure, jokes, encouragement and the will to carry on with the development and performance of the monologues.

Lily Bevan

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