The Oberon Book of Modern Monologues for Men

Monologues are an essential part of every actor's toolkit. Actors are required to perform monologues regularly throughout their career: preparing for drama school entry, showcasing skills for agents or auditioning for a role. Following on from the bestselling first volume (2008), this book showcases selected monologues from some of the finest modern plays by some of today's leading contemporary playwrights. These monologues contain a diverse range of quirky and memorable characters that cross cultural and historical boundaries. The pieces are helpfully organised into age-specific groups: 'Teens', 'Twenties', 'Thirties' and 'Forties plus'.

Catherine Weate has been voice coaching for over twenty years in England, Australia, Hong Kong, Africa and India. Her work has taken her into the diverse worlds of theatre, film, radio, education, commerce, law and politics. She has been Head of Voice at Rose Bruford College, Head of Voice and Vice Principal at the Academy of Live and Recorded Arts and Head of Examinations at LAMDA.

PART ONE: TEENS BOY Shadowmouth (Meredith Oakes) 17 TIM The Loss of All Things (Chris Goode) from Sixty-Six Books: 21st-Century Writers Speak to the King James Bible 20 SOLDIER BOY Desert Boy (Mojisola Adebayo) from Mojisola Adebayo: Plays One 23 JAY Mrs Reynolds and The Ruffian (Gary Owen) 26 JORDAN Fit (Rikki Beadle-Blair) 29 MARK DNA (Dennis Kelly) 32 JAKEY Blackberry Trout Face (Laurence Wilson) 35 MOHAMMED What Fatima Did - (Atiha Sen Gupta) 39 JOE Shraddha (Natasha Langridge) 41 PART TWO: TWENTIES ALISTAIR Posh (Laura Wade) 46 DANIEL Spur of the Moment (Anya Reiss) 50 JAMES DEAN JAMES DEAN IS DEAD! (Long Live James Dean) (Jackie Skarvellis) from Hollywood Legends: 'Live' on Stage 52 SID Kurt and Sid (Roy Smiles) 54 FRANCIS One Man, Two Guvnors (Richard Bean) 56 X Untitled (Inua Ellams) 59 RYSIEK Our Class (Tadeusz Slobodzianek / Ryan Craig) 62 1 2 IKE Shalom Baby (Rikki Beadle-Blair) 65 RAY Bea (Mick Gordon) 67 E-Z Lower Ninth (Beau Willimon) 70 SCOTT Love Steals Us From Loneliness (Gary Owen) 73 DANIEL The Dark Things (Ursula Rani Sarma) 76 SAM Beardy (Tom Wells) from Sixty-Six Books: 21st-Century Writers Speak to the King James Bible 79 PART THREE: THIRTIES MECHANIC Middletown (Will Eno) 84 ANDREW In the Pipeline (Gary Owen) 87 Paul Deep Heat (Robin Soans) 90 MAX Chekhov in Hell (Dan Rebellato) 93 CURTIS We're Gonna Make You Whole (Yasmine Van Wilt) 97 DEMISSIE Zero (Chris O'Connell) 100 CHRISTOPHER Up on Roof (Richard Bean) from Bean: Plays Three 104 MICHAEL I Heart Maths (James Ley) from The Ego Plays 109 OZZY The Miracle Man (Douglas Maxwell) 112 THE OTHER I Am the Wind (Jon Fosse / Simon Stephens) 115 POZDYNYSHEV The Kreutzer Sonata (Leo Tolstoy / Nancy Harris) 121 THE COACH Behold the Coach, in a Blazer, Uninsured from Oh, the Humanity and other good intentions (Will Eno) 124 1 3 PART FOUR: FORTIES PLUS PATRICK This Other City (Daragh Carville) 128 SONGWRITER Blue Heart Afternoon (Nigel Gearing) 131 ALI Deep Heat (Robin Soans) 134 MOHAMED HAMMOUDAN The Riots (Gillian Slovo) 137 METWALI The Prophet (Hassan Abdulrazzak) 140 SANCHO Sancho: An Act of Remembrance (Paterson Joseph) 143 SEB Dandy in the Underworld (Tim Fountain) 146 PHILIP Deep Heat (Robin Soans) 149 COLONEL BARCLAY Birdsong (Sebastian Faulks / Rachel Wagstaff) 152 DR MINOR Lullabies of Broadmoor: Wilderness (Steve Hennessy) 154 ALEC Colder Than Here (Laura Wade) 157 ROTHKO Red (John Logan) 161 TONY Muswell Hill (Torben Betts) 164 COLM The Gods Weep (Dennis Kelly) 166 MALVOLIO I, Shakespeare (Tim Crouch) 169 ORSON WELLES Obediently Yours, Orson Welles (Richard France) from Hollywood Legends: 'Live' on Stage 173 GENERAL KALASHNIKOV Kalashnikov: In the Woods by the Lake (Fraser Grace) 177