Silent Monologue Assignment: Story Analysis and Plot Summary

For my silent monologue assignment, I don't want the lyrics of the song to dictate what my performance will be like. The lyrics of the song seem to discuss a relationship that may be experiencing some turbulence and troubles. However, I want to create a scene that truly ponders the idea of life. I thought of the idea of the surgeon, through the idea of when life may be in danger, many head over to the hospital. I want to portray the idea of how fragile life may be, and the hardships that may be difficult to cross over, and the idea of how the choices you make can affect the state of life.

My basic plot line will be the surgeon who is just beginning to feel comfortable during a procedure, who has worked her whole life to achieve this goal, receives a patient, a young boy of about five, who suffers from appendicitis. She has performed this procedure before, so she is feeling fairly confident. However, things go deathly wrong in the procedure as the appendicitis bursts, and the young boy's pulse decreases until it no longer exists. She is stricken with depression, sadness, anger, and pain as she lets the family know what has happened. She then progresses to her office, where she strides around and sobs as she thinks about what she believes is her responsibility. She decides it is only right if she takes her life as well.

At the beginning of the song, during the instrumental part, she eagerly preps for surgery. Though she may feel absolutely terrified on the inside, on the outside she attempts to put on a demeanor of calm. She puts on gloves, a face mask, and a hair net after washing her hands.

The lyrics begin as she heads over to the operating table, on the actor's stage right, and asks her assistants if they are ready, and for the first neccessary tools. She makes the beginning incision and makes her way to the appendix to have it removed.

After about twenty seconds, she hears a beeping noise and looks at the computer screen to find the little boy's pulse is falling, and falling quickly. Frantically, she yells for her assistants to get her various materials as she tries to save the boy's life.

After another twenty seconds, it is now too late. The child has died. She is beginning to realize what happened, and takes some of her emotion out on her assistants as she throws her face mask to the ground and lets the grief overtake her for ten seconds.

For twenty seconds, she walks out of the operating room, pushing the double doors open, and knocks on the door of the family waiting room (middle of the stage). The family opens the door, and instantly knows it is not good news from the demeanor of her face. She quietly tells the family what has happened as she excuses herself, sobbing as she leaves the room.

Walking towards her office now, stage left and partly middle of the stage, she opens the door, closes it behind her, and sinks down to the floor and just cries for about thirty seconds. She then gets up, heads over to a cabinet, opens it, and takes out a photo album of pictures of all of her previous patients. She looks at all of the lives she had saved, and then thinks of the one she didn't, and overcome by emotion, she throws the photo album on the ground after about twenty seconds. She then takes her diploma off the wall and stares at it for about twenty seconds wondering if she really deserves it, and throws that on the ground as well.

She then cannot deal with the pain no longer and takes a gun out of the drawer in her desk that she kept for emergencies. She stares at it for about twenty seconds, decides it is not the right way to go. Then for ten seconds, she reconsiders it. She takes the gun out again, holds it up to her head for about ten seconds, and shoots.

Through this story, I want to portray the idea of life, and what life exactly may be.