Saturday, October 4, 2014

Monologue Mania Day # 234 by Janet S. Tiger Day of Atonement Oct. 4, 2014

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Monologue Mania Day # 234 by Janet S. Tiger  Day of Atonement Oct. 4, 2014 

   Today is Yom Kippur, the Day of Atonement in the Jewish year.  The following monologue is from my play DAY OF ATONEMENT.  It is adjusted a bit so that is can be a monologue - so technically, it is a new monologue!  For those interested in getting the entire play, please click here to purchase.  Wishing all a Happy, Healthy and Successful New Year!


                                                     Day of Atonement (from the play)
                         A monologue by Janet S. Tiger   © all rights reserved
                                                     tigerteam1@gmail.com 

             (Frieda and Molly are in their sixties, old friends through marriage.  The play concerns a special Yom Kippur that brings up old memories.  Although Frieda is giving the monologue near the end of the play,  this section involves Molly's inability to accept  her daughter's choices.)

FRIEDA - We’re not in Poland anymore, Molly - you can let up a little.
  
            (Listens, laughs)

FRIEDA - You say it was easier?   Ha!   You mean dying from typhoid and starvation
and easier having the Poles have their dogs chase us down like
animals?   Which easier do you mean?

             (Imitates Molly, taunting her)  Easier because we knew who we were. 
             Everyone was born and they knew what they were going to be.   If you did 
             something wrong, against God’s law, no one talked to you.   You knew who you were going to
marry and what your children would be when they grew up....and it was easier!

             (Now she is getting mad)   No one knew that everyone was going to grow up to
be dead!   No one knows now, either, Molly, that’s why each day is so
precious!   (Quiet) What do you think life is about, Molly?  What are our lives?  We’re not rich or famous like Madonna.  

We never got Nobel Prizes or invented a cure for cancer!   What are we here for?    We avoided the hell in Europe, we had children and raised them and only because God blew over a candle?   Are we the minutes like the fire - fast and gone in ashes and smoke with just a breeze?   Or are we the decisions we make that last us a lifetime?  Do you think God is so bored that he has time to worry that you ate a chocolate eclair on Yom Kippur?    Do you think God is sitting up there today ready to sign you into the Book of Life because you haven’t spoken to your own flesh and blood for 6 years?  Don’t you see that we are the last of our town and  you are the only one who can tell your grandchildren what it was like to live back then!  God didn’t have us go through all of this just to watch it die out!   You must choose life, Molly!   Choose life!   Call up your daughter!  Call up Susan!  You don’t have to do anything except say hello!  Please, Molly!

(She bows her head.  Lights down)


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Janet S. Tiger    858-736-6315
Member Dramatists Guild since 1983
Playwright-in-Residence
Swedenborg Hall 2006-8
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