CLIPPERS
Peter’s monologue
from the one-act play, Seventeen Stitches
by Tara Meddaugh
About the play, Seventeen Stitches:
In this one-act dark comedy/thriller, teens Rachel and Peter meet in a vortex-like space between opposing lines of people. While Rachel is confidently passing the time before she returns to place in her line, Peter has stepped out of his line in protest. As the lines begin to close in on them, he must make a life-altering decision by choosing to continue forging his path in his father’s line, or join the haunting allure of Rachel’s line, the “line of diamonds.
About the monologue, Clippers:
Peter speaks to a girl, Rachel, who waits for her turn in an ominous line in in the same abyss-like space as Peter. While she is encouraged by words from her father, Peter has severed ties to his father after he feels his father abandoned him. He shares how a bully had once attacked him in order to steal his bike. When Peter’s father came to his rescue, instead of punishing the bully, he told the bully to take the bike. Peter’s father was never able to afford another bike, and without that bike, Peter has not been able to get away from people or things ever since—until now. Peter holds onto his resentment that his father would not seek revenge on the bully for him.
DETAILS
From the one-act play, Seventeen Stitches.
Genre: Dark Comedy/Thriller/Teen/Drama
Cast: Male (female)
Age range: 12-20
Setting: A waiting area in an abyss
Running time: Approximately 2 minutes
Good for: teen monologue, dramatic monologue, monologue from a play, parent/child relationship, revenge, forgiveness, loyalties, metaphoric
EXCERPT BELOW
______________________
PETER
One summer my father gave me a bike for my birthday. I rode it everywhere—for five days. I was so happy to be able to finally get away from things and people and… A bike is fast for a kid, y’know?
(pause)
Then this kid down the street, Jeff Oakland, saw me with it and said he wanted it. He was a lot bigger than me, maybe 2 years older. He had garden clippers from his mom’s greenhouse and that day, he came at me with them. I put the kickstand down and told him to leave me alone. I was right outside my parents’ house, so I figured nothing could happen to me. I was safe, right? But he kept coming closer with the garden clippers and telling me to get off the bike. When I didn’t, he grabbed my right leg and held it while he dug the clippers into my leg. The blood got all over the right pedal and on the lightning decals my dad put on it. But I wouldn’t get off the bike. When he went to my left leg with the clippers, I started screaming. I yelled that my dad was gonna come out, so he better leave me alone. But when my dad did come out, when he finally came out… He—END OF EXCERPT
Click below for the complete digital 2-minute monologue, Clippers, from the one-act play Seventeen Stitches.
Click below to learn more about Peter and to read the complete one-act play, Seventeen Stitches, from which this monologue comes:
Rachel and Peter meet in a vortex-like space between opposing lines of people. While Rachel is simply passing the time before she returns to her place in line, Peter has stepped out of his line in protest. As the lines begin to close in on them, he must make a life-altering decision by choosing to continue forging his path in his father’s line, or join the haunting allure of Rachel’s line, the “line of diamonds.”
-A dark comedy/thriller, one-act play. approximately 20-25 minutes, for 2 actors (1 female, 1 male), teen or young adult.