We had a government steamer from New Zealand three times a year, you know. That brought our mail. (MRS. MASTERSON: And your father permitted you to read these improper things?) My father taught me to face the facts of my being. My father was a fighter, you know. (MRS. MASTERSON: Yes, I knew that.) Life had hurt him. Some day you must tell me about it... what it was that happened to him here in Boston. He never would talk about it, but I've often wondered. It must have been my mother. What did she do to him before she died? (She pauses, expecting an answer.) Was it that she was just conventional like you? (She pauses again.) It must have been something dreadful... he felt so keenly about it. He burned it into my very soul... his fear of civilization. And here I am... right in the midst of it... I'm letting it get its claws into me! I'm wearing its clothes... (She tears at them.) I'm breathing its air! I don't believe I can stand it! (She paces the room restlessly.) My soul is suffocating, as well as my body. I must have something to remind me of the sky, and the open sea, and the great spaces. I must go back again to my home, to my island! (Stretches out her arms to them appealingly.) Ah, can't some of you understand about it? Can't some of you take pity on me? It's so strange to me... so different from everything I've been used to! Aunt Sophronia!

Oceana Monologue from The Naturewoman

Rehearse Oceana's monologue