ENGULF THE EVIL ASHES
A monologue from For My Silent Sisters
By Tara Meddaugh
*Please note that while I write with great respect and care, this play contains references to human trafficking and violence and may therefore not be suitable for all readers and audiences.
* Please also note that while the play is fiction, there are many experiences, very similar to the ones I give voice to, which have happened to real people. No country is immune to this egregious crime. At the time I’m writing this, criminals are trafficking an estimated 25 million people worldwide. For more information on human trafficking in the USA, how to help or report, visit the Human Trafficking Hotline or Polaris.
About the full-length play, For My Silent Sisters, from which this monologue, Engulf the Evil Ashes, comes:
FOR MY SILENT SISTERS
Set in the countries of Cambodia, Romania, India and the United States, four teenagers struggle to escape the dark underworld of child sex trafficking. Jorani has been sold to a brothel in payment for her sister’s gambling debt, and her Buddhist upbringing is put to the test. Marta seeks a new life as a translator in England, but after finding her “employer” has vastly different plans for her, she must risk her own life to save another. After a fight with her father, Claire meets an older man whom she starts to fall for—but whose manipulation over her brings on severe consequences. Abhay, living on the streets of Mumbai, finds employment at a brothel and must decide if the “good life” is worth the atrocities. While living in four different parts of the world, their lives are intertwined, and their support of each other binds this connection. This drama shines light on the real horrors that occur all over the world, and the hope and faith that allow children to survive.
About the monologue, Engulf the Evil Ashes:
After her dear friend, Tasaria, has been killed trying to escape a “training camp” for forced prostitution, Marta is punished by association. She is placed in the ground, simulating being buried alive. Though grieving, her rage and determination give her strength, and Marta comes up with a plan for her own freedom. She hides sticks from the outdoors and brings them with her when she is placed in an isolated room inside. During the course of a few hours, she is able to start a fire and begin burning down the old wooden building. While the building goes up in flames and smoke, Marta only smells freedom.
MONOLOGUE DETAILS:
Genre: Drama/Teen
Cast: Female
Age range: teen through adult
Setting: Forced prostitution “training camp” in Albania
Time period: Contemporary
Running time: around 2.5 minutes
*Note that this monologue contains content referencing human trafficking and violence.
Good for: social justice issues, powerful monologue for teens, awareness of human trafficking, discussion, conversation for change, empowerment, strong female voice
____________
MARTA (out)
My ashes engulf the evil ashes…I do it for her. For us. For my silent sisters.
(pause)
As they fill my mouth, my lungs with dirt, sticks poking at my beaten skin, I grab one. I grab two. They’re small. Not even bigger than the palm of my hand, but I grasp them through the powdery dirt. If this is not the end for me, I will do justice for Tasaria and I will take these sticks with me. I’m naked, so I put the sticks the only place I can hide them.
(pause)
When they let me back in, they make their mistake. They don’t burn me too or search my naked body. They put me in a room. By myself. They think that seeing my best friend burned to death, feeling myself be buried alive for hours, and now sticking me solitary confinement—this will be punishment enough. This will break me. This will end my resistance. But it doesn’t. And I am not by myself in here. I have two sticks.
(pause)
I take out my sticks and I blow on them until I feel dizzy, waving my hands over them to dry them completely. It’s dark, but I don’t need light. My mind rushes back to when my brothers and sisters and I would camp in the woods behind our house. My father made us start a fire on our own, no matches. In the wild, we would not have matches, he’d say. We’d race to see who could start their fire first. I never won, but I never gave up and my fire would eventually burn as brightly as any of my brothers’. When my sticks are dry, I feel for the other thing they left in this room with me. My hair. I grab a fistful of dirty hair and I pull. END OF EXCERPT
Click below for the entire digital copy of the monologue, Engulf The Evil Ashes by Tara Meddaugh:
To learn more about Marta and her story, check out the play, For My Silent Sisters. You can find information about the play here, or click below for a digital copy of the entire play.