I have an assessment coming up in just 2-3 weeks and I need to perform this script. The script is meant to be funny yet I don’t know how to make it funny.Here is the script:
http://plays.about.com/od/comedymonologues/a/cassa…
As you can see there isn’t any stage directions, so far I have been taking a dramatic, panicky approach but I don’t find myself being able to make it funny. I am going to get marked on my acting and get a grade so I really need to pull this off and do really amazing. I have looked at references on youtube btw.
I just need really great ideas to make this script funnier for my acting 😀 Thank you
Edit: to bnk01, I think you have misunderstood the script. The script is is Cassandra who is a Greek God that has been given the power to predict the future but the ironic thing is no one believes her and in the script she is complaining by telling the audience what is happening and what irony there is between all the Greek Gods attending the party. At the beginning it tell us the context already of what is happening and who’s Cassandra and where is she. what she’s doing etc
Edit: to bnk01, I think you have misunderstood the script. The script is is Cassandra who is a Greek God that has been given the power to predict the future but the ironic thing is no one believes her and in the script she is complaining by telling the audience what is happening and what irony there is between all the Greek Gods attending the party. At the beginning it tell us the context already of what is happening and who’s Cassandra and where is she. what she’s doing etc
3 Answers
You HAVE to do this script? It isn’t funny. At all. The only suggestion I have is to play the scene as straight as you can. Play it angry, puns and all. YOU, Cassandra, aren’t laughing. Disaster looms, but do they listen? Do they care? Even though you’ve always been right? Like ALWAYS? And the punch sucks too–what happened to the “nectar of the gods”? Try that approach, and video yourself. See if it comes off more ironic or if we can laugh and sympathesize with her frustration. But if you were not actually assigned this crap, find a REAL comic play for your monologue. One that played in professional theatres.
EDIT: The last line about the napkins, deliver more understated and casually as you glance over and notice they’ve run out. This play is not funny at all. I’m sure the academics who wrote it were chuckling over their typewriters the whole time. Manual typewriters. Anyone who writes jokes this old doesn’t use a word processor.
Like any monologue, the key is to understand the context of the scene. Who is Cassandra talking to (Paris), and what is she trying to get from him by saying those words in that moment? Is she trying to seduce him? Trick him? Distract him while she poisons his drink?
If you don t know the scene, you re just saying words and trying to find jokes in the piece. There are some – but what makes a monologue work is playing the character in the moment… which is where the real humor lies.
Cassandra Monologue