WHITE AS DEATH, RED AS BLOOD: Snow White’s Cursed Sleep
a monologue
by Tara Meddaugh
Rachel Luciani as Snow White in the premiere performance in White as Death, Red as Blood.
Snow White has recently awoken from the cursed sleep the Evil Queen placed upon her. While she still sings and dances with the forest birds, she has taken a sinister tone and the birds are, justifiably, terrified of her now. She feels that, in coming back from this deadly state of torture inside the glass coffin, ghostly cursed souls now swim inside of her. She is not the same Snow White as before. On top of fighting her inner demons, she also feels lonely that she is the only one who has been able to conquer death and carries around this suffering. She seeks others to join her in this state, but so far, she’s had no success in bringing anyone she’s killed back to life (that includes a bird family, the 7 dwarves and, yes, even “that prince who kissed” her).
But maybe you, her captive audience in the forest, will be different. Maybe she’ll have success with you…
(May I suggest that you keep your running shoes on?)
DETAILS
Genre: Dramatic/Thriller/Fairy Tale, bit of comedy, monologue
Running time: Approximately 3 minutes
Cast: 1 Female
Age range: Teen through 50s
Setting: Fairy Tale Forest
Great for: outdoor theater, one-woman show, spooky theater, thrillers, audience interaction
EXCERPT BELOW
AT RISE: A fairy tale forest, near the house of the Seven Dwarves. SNOW WHITE enters, dancing dreamily and singing a song which should be cheery, but ends up sounding a bit off, sinister, dark. She wears clothing which was once beautiful, but now ragged. She appears bruised and bloodied. Having endured a torturous time in a deep cursed sleep given to her by the Evil Queen, she is awake, but not in her right mind. She waffles between sickly sweet, smiling, soft, dreamy—and ferocious, sinister, evil, murderous. She talks to a typically friendly, but now frightened, forest creature, Little Bird.
SNOW WHITE
(singing)
“White as snow. Red as apple.”[1]
(speaking to Little Bird)
Sing with me, Little Bird!
(singing)
“White as snow. Red as apple.”
No. No. These words aren’t right. I hate snow. (pause) And apples.
(She thinks, then smiles as she has found new lyrics, pleased with herself)
“White as Death. Red as Blood.” Mmmm. Much more soothing. “White as Death. Red as Blood.”
(She notices Little Bird is moving away from her.)
Why are you moving away from me, Little Bird? You don’t like my song anymore? Before The Great Sleep, you loved all my songs, and my voice. “The voice of an angel,” you used to tweet.
But now you stare at me with death in your eyes.
But I conquered Death, didn’t I, Little Bird? The Evil Queen thought that placing me in a glass coffin, casting The Great Sleep upon me for what should have been an eternity—where I walked with torturous demons, where I swam in black clouds of cursed souls—she thought this would be my end. But…no… Because—
END OF EXCERPT. CLICK BELOW FOR THE COMPLETE 2-3 minute monologue, White as Death, Red as Blood: Snow White’s Cursed Sleep.
[suggested melody in sheet music below]
PHOTOS
Rachel Luciani and Benna Strober in the premiere performance of White as Death, Red as Blood: Snow White’s Cursed Sleep; outdoor production at The Haunted Kill, in Ossining, NY, produced by Westchester Collaborative Theater, directed by Mario Giacalone.
