The Methuen Drama Book of Queer Monologues

Scottee, Scottee

• Publisher: Oberon Books
• Year: 2018
• ISBN:
  9781786823489
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Medios de comunicación y artes escénicas
• Subtopic: Actuación y audiciones

The first collection of its kind, The Oberon Book of Queer Monologues chronicles over one hundred years of queer and trans performance. Combining stage plays with spoken word and performance art, this anthology features over forty extracts from some of the most exciting stage works in the English-speaking world. It is an essential tool for artists seeking monologues for auditions or training; a comprehensive guide through the hidden histories of queer theatre; and a celebration of the LGBTQIA+ community. Curated by award-winning artist Scottee, it features work from artists including Neil Bartlett, Mae West, Emma Donoghue, Split Britches, Chris Goode and Travis Alabanza.

2010S

2010

Rikki Beadle-Blair

FIT

FIT was developed by Rikki Beadle-Blair to address the growing problem of homophobic bullying in Britain’s schools, and was especially created to complement various learning objectives from the National Curriculum, particularly PHSE and Citizenship. The play’s teenage characters attempt to fit in and try to stand out in a culture where everything from not liking sport to wearing the wrong trainers is ‘gay.’

In the extract, seventeen-year-old Black British boy Jordan confesses he used to be in love with another boy called Melvin, who was out and proud despite suffering homophobic abuse.

Keywords: British – Black – gay – teenagers – bullying

I was in love. With a lad called Melvin. He was lovely. Dead skinny, but lovely. He was out. He was proud. And they used to knock seven bells out of him. They used to spit on his back from the top of the stairs. They used steal his stuff and piss on it and worse. And he was like you. He never cried. They did some right horrible things. Constantly. Just torturing him. And I used to let ’em. I used to watch. And I never said nothing. Til one day, he tried to kill hisself. Tried to hang hisself with his shirt in the changing rooms while the rest of us was playing football. I don’t know why he chose the changing room. Yeah, I do. So we’d find him there. So we’d discover him. It was meant to be his final statement. But he didn’t die. Just nearly. Ambulance came. Took him away. And people started laughing about it. Straight back to taking the piss. Someone found Melvin’s bag – started to kick it about. And I snapped. I went mental. I broke this lad’s cheekbone. I’m not sorry. He deserved it. I deserved it. I was another coward just like them. When I should have been brave like Melvin.

2014

Scottee

The Worst of Scottee

The Worst of Scottee is a one-man show about regrets and digging up the past, directed by Chris Goode for the Roundhouse in 2014. Scottee hired a psychotherapist and a filmmaker to create this funny, dark and touching show, filled with past flames, ex-friends and people who no longer like him.

The extract centres on fatness, fatphobia, body image, and misogyny.

Keywords: British – queer – fat – body image

There’s a fat girl in the corner

And she’s the office clown

The life and soul of parties never easy to weigh down

She can count her friends on one hand, she knows
who to trust

The plump girl in HR the boys at school cussed

There’s a fat girl in the corner

She’s been like it since her teens

She blames her Mum’s side for the obese gene

Saturday job in Woolworths, Pick ’n’ Mix isle

She wants to lose weight like that girl off Jeremy Kyle

There’s a fat girl in the corner

And her clothes never fit

She wants to flaunt Gucci, not that loose Evans knit

Hair is always pristine, flawless maquillage

Underneath the warpaint a broken facade

There’s a fat girl in the corner

And she holds her head down low

Don’t wanna be noticed as she scoffs at Maison
Bertaux

She likes to eat alone, away from prying eyes

Double chocolate gateau, the start of her demise

There’s a fat girl in the corner

And she’s crying in the bath

Remembering gays in Soho who point and state and
laugh

Had enough of the teasing she wants to lose weight

Afraid what people think

Doesn’t want to lose face

There’s a fat girl in the corner

And for once she’s had enough

Things have gone pear-shaped

She wants someone to love

Overworked, overeaten and overweight

A twenty-something fat cat who never was the bait

There’s a fat girl in the corner

And now she is deceased

Went down the wrong hole, her midnight feast

She ate a box of donuts, she shoved them down her throat

The thing that killed her was?

The thing she loved the most

2015

Franko B

Insignificant

Franko B is a celebrated queer performance artist. In his words, his work ‘is situated somewhere between isolation and seduction, benevolence and confrontation, suffering and eroticism, punk and poetry. It is a certain type of schizophrenia that finds a balance, dramatically undermining the status quo.’

His piece Insignificant, reported here in full, grapples with the impossibility of finding words to define love.

Keywords: British – queer – performance art

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