I have not seen my face for a year, but I can imagine how ugly it has grown. How my looks must wound your feelings! (ALMA: Oh, do not talk like that, father!) But you know my imperturbable nature. And now you come in, the only thing to make my happiness complete. It is only to reward you richly and splendidly that I would become a king again. (ALMA: I hear the jailer! Tell me how I can lighten your sufferings!) (Sinks down on the stool exhausted, half to himself:) What do I lack? How frightful this prison would become if the pleasures of life were admitted here! How can I desire here a beautiful woman, where I cannot even conjure up a recollection of beauty! My couch there is shut during the day. There is no other resting-place, and I lie down there at night as weary as if I had ploughed an acre. And in the morning the clanging bell wakes me from dreams more serene than those I dreamed as a child. ((As the door is opened.)) When you see me again, my child, you will hear no more complaints. You shall feel as happy with me as if you were outside in your sunny world. Farewell!

The King Monologue from Such is Life: A Play in Five Acts

Rehearse The King's monologue