New Dramatic Monologue about Grief: Comprehending Forever by Tara Meddaugh
Death and “forever” are concepts that are incredibly difficult to grasp in our limited, this-world lives. In my own experience with grief, I have often waffled between times when my brain understands death, but my heart doesn’t; or times when my heart understands, but my brain doesn’t. Sometimes when both of these parts understand at once, the weight is simply too great to bear.
In this dramatic monologue, Alan’s wife has recently died. His brother, Joe, has stopped by to see him. Alan wonders if it is normal to keep asking where his wife is in moments that remind him of her. His brain hurts trying to comprehend the reality that she is gone.
This is a contemporary dramatic monologue for a male (or female) actor, running approximately 2 minutes. Read an except below:
ALAN
Is it strange that I keep asking where she is? I know, I mean, I know she’s not here. Logically. I know that. But—it’s not just the bigger things—like, how I’ll be sitting at the kitchen table where we’ve had coffee together every morning since we moved in together. I’ll look at my mug from, you know, Barcelona or something. She collected a mug from every vacation we went on, so I’m staring at memories with her every single morning. And I’ll look at her chair and just say, I’ll just say it out loud, “Where are you, Elizabeth?”
(pause)
“Where are you? I shouldn’t be drinking coffee. From this mug. By myself.”
(pause)
But Joe, it’s the small, random things too. Not just our routines and her chair, but these things that you, that maybe you don’t think you would even remember. This morning, I’m putting eye drops in and I—END OF EXCERPT.
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