Monologue

Strammfest Monologue from Annajanska, the Bolshevik Empress

From Annajanska, the Bolshevik Empress by Bernard Shaw

any · dramatic · 1:47 min

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Tell them to send her up. I shall have to receive her without even rising, without kissing her hand, to keep up appearances before the escort. It will break my heart. SCHNEIDEKIND (into the receiver). Send her up... Tcha! (He hangs up the receiver.) He says she is halfway up already: they couldn't hold her. The Grand Duchess bursts into the room, dragging with her two exhausted soldiers hanging on desperately to her arms. She is enveloped from head to foot by a fur-lined cloak, and wears a fur cap. SCHNEIDEKIND (pointing to the bench). At the word Go, place your prisoner on the bench in a sitting posture; and take your seats right and left of her. Go. The two soldiers make a supreme effort to force her to sit down. She flings them back so that they are forced to sit on the bench to save themselves from falling backwards over it, and is herself dragged into sitting between them. The second soldier, holding on tight to the Grand Duchess with one hand, produces papers with the other, and waves them towards Schneidekind, who takes them from him and passes them on to the General. He opens them and reads them with a grave expression.

About this piece

30s · anticipation · power · identity · betrayal · freedom

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