Bertha Monologue from The Father

From The Father by August Strindberg

female · anguished · 1:19 min

Yes, but you mustn't say anything about it. Promise me you won't. (CAPTAIN: Tell me what it is then.) In the evening she generally turns down the lamp and then she makes me sit at a table holding a pen over a piece of paper. And then she says that the spirits are to write. (CAPTAIN: What's all this--and you have never told me about it?) Forgive me, but I dared not, for Grandmother says the spirits take revenge if one talks about them. And then the pen writes, but I don't know whether I'm doing it or not. Sometimes it goes well, but sometimes it won't go at all, and when I am tired nothing comes, but she wants it to come just the same. And tonight I thought I was writing beautifully, but then grandmother said it was all from Stagnelius, and that I had deceived her, and then she got terribly angry.

Rehearse Bertha's monologue

Run it out loud with a spotlight that follows your voice, line by line, until it's off the page. Free to start, no credit card.

Rehearse free Get started free