Reviews: Monologues for ‘Others’ by Charlie Josephine

The blurb on this set of monologues states that the selection is ‘for the “others”. For anyone who's ever felt othered. For us lot.’ In the introduction, Charlie Josephine reveals that it was a struggle to choose monologues for drama school applications because having been assigned female as birth, it was expected that a female character's speech would be selected. ‘I was seventeen, gender scrambled, working class, neurodiverse, and fucking frustrated,’ they write. Josephine opted for Juliet's ‘gallop apace’ speech but couldn't connect with it and wanted something ‘punchy’ for the contemporary choice.

It was even more difficult to find a contemporary monologue that was suitable, so Josephine opted to write a monologue and claim that a made-up writer had written it, audition after audition. Josephine says ‘eventually I did get into drama school, and I started writing to give myself parts. Because I couldn't find and characters like me, and I couldn't bear the pain of that anymore.’

The collection's glossary categorises the monologues thematically including poetic, queer, urgent and angry, fizzy and pingy, working class and confessional. The publication includes monologues from Josephine's works Bitch Boxer, Blush, Pops, Skin and Blister, Moon Licks and Flies, as well as monologues written specifically for this collection.

This is an enjoyable collection of work, particularly as a teacher who values the importance of students seeing themselves represented. Often what we are able to offer students does not reflect who they are, and although they can act like that character, it's wonderful to find a role that feels like it's tailormade for them. By writing to fill the gap for themself Josephine has indeed created a collection for the ‘others’.

There is much to get out of this collection: the range of characters, the energy that runs through the pieces, its imagery, the poetic, rhythmic use of language prevalent in many of the speeches and the appealing way this collection is tied together thematically for students. At the beginning of each piece, it states: ‘feel free to change the pronouns for a closer fit to you.’ A great addition to your drama resources.