Contemporary Monologue 3 - The Table Laid

Play: The Table Laid

Playwright: Anna Langhoff
Character: Galina Duvidowitsch
Part of the Play: page 157
Setting: A kitchen of a German refugee hostel in the early 1990's
Play's context: The story follows many different refugees who explain their past of illegal border crossing, corrupt officials, crooked migration agents, beatings and abuse demonstrating the magnified problems of unemployment and racial intolerance for woman and their families in the post communist period.

Galina's monologue:
"Serb. Croat. What is that? What difference have you found? What is your shit problem? Maybe you know? But how can I explain to my son. His grandmother still wore a veil. Had both her arms covered down to her wrists even on the hottest of days. She understood no Russian. In her house there was no water. She brought it from the stream. Day by day. The buckets were heavy. But then the men came. And girls in light blouses. They laughed loudly on the dust track. Shoes stained grey. The men and the girls. They called meetings in the village square. Made speeches. Said. Moscow is ruled by the working class. It is a revolution! But Moscow was distant. My grandmother hadn't even noticed the revolution. Still. Everyone there knew that in dark kitchens. They would bring water and electricity. Women called one girl. Are like men. Have the same rights and same duties. Women can't flee from the new age. No longer shall you wrap in veils to inhibit and bind you. The veils fell into the dust. From now on laughed grandmother. Men must give birth to great pain. Must bleed and be alone. Have their stillborns ripped from their guts."

Galina's character:
Galina is a Russian refugee from Moscow. She is married to a Jew called Michail and she is also a mother to a young son. She is strongly against war however she has been caught up in a conflict that has made her have to leave her home to move to the German refugee hostel. Galina ran away from her home with her husband with false documents so she has to hide is German as a fugitive. She dreams of her life before she moved and how the idea of a revolution was wonderful but now it all seems like a mistake.

My View:
I personally think that Galina is a well lived character and there is a lot of depth and grit to her life. So I feel that I would need to play Galina with a very earthy and grounded voice as she has lived through tough experiences. I also will need to put on a Russian ascent in order to show her thick heritage from Moscow.  Even though this is only an extract of the original monologue, if feel that Galina goes on an emotional journey as she starts of arguing with another man, then she reminisces  on her grandmother, then she expresses the hope of the revolution but then she drops down to express the realisation of her life.