(In a low voice.) Miss Hegan, I came to New York an entire stranger two years ago, and my brother introduced me to his rich friends. By one of them I was asked to take charge of a law case. It was a case of very great importance, which served to give me an opening into the inner life of the city. I discovered that, in their blind struggle for power, our great capitalists had lost all sense of the difference between honesty and crime. I found that trust funds were being abused... that courts and legislatures were being corrupted... the very financial stability of the country was being wrecked. The thing shocked me to the bottom of my soul, and I set to work to give the public some light on the situation. Then, what happened, Miss Hegan? My newly made rich friends cut me a deal; they began to circulate vile slanders about me... they insulted me openly, on more than one occasion. So, don't you see? (LAURA: Yes. I see. But could you not have trusted a friendship such as ours?) I did not dare.

Montague Monologue from The Machine

Rehearse Montague's monologue