One Actor - Another Show

It is not easy for me to find monologues that inspire me to perform them. The two I have most recently performed did just that. I have been looking for new scripts over the past few months. Two scripts sent to me from overseas have been dark and dated and others I have read have simply been depressing and filled with a sense of despair or hopelessness. I do not have to like the character or characters I am portraying. But I do have to have some empathy for them. There has to be some humour, however black, to make an audience smile or wince from time to time. I want an audience to learn something too. Even when the message is challenging or uncomfortable, an audience needs to share at least some of the character's feelings or relate to some of the character's behaviour. So I keep looking. I have even thought of writing something myself; but script writing is a talent I have yet to master.

The “ Importance of Being Oscar ” by Irish playwright Micheál mac Líammóir, not to be confused with “The Importance of Being Ernest”,  was written in the late 1950s and was first performed in 1960 by Mr. mac Líammóir himself. Actor Paul Rapsey performed this challenging play in Cobourg and Warkworth Ontario in 2017 to great acclaim. The play is a monologue in two Acts about the magnificent but tragic life of Oscar Wilde (1854 – 1900).  Wilde was an Irish playwright, novelist, essayist and poet in the late Victorian period. He achieved fame at a very young age, but it was notoriety that was his downfall.  Wilde had a very public and torrid relationship with the son of an aristocrat, the 9 th Marquis of Queensbury, whose name is given to the rules of boxing. Queensbury set out to destroy Oscar Wilde with the aid of the English establishment, which had taken umbrage at Wilde’s witty, very public and literary critique of their outdated social norms and moral hypocr...

Paul Rapsey presented “ Bed Among the Lentils ”, the award winning script by British playwright Alan Bennett in various venues in Ontario, Nova Scotia and England in 2016. The performances were a resounding success. Paul  returned to his first passion of acting after retiring from a thirty-year career in social justice law in 2015. During the 1970s he performed in many genres including summer stock, childrens' theatre, avant garde, classical theatre and mime. He gave up his professional theatre memberships (ACTRA and Equity) in 1995 when law seemed to offer him all the theatrics he needed at the time. He has now chosen to only undertake roles that challenge his mind and his skills, and that also challenge society’s stereotypes. He prefers simple sets and relies on the power of a playwright’s words and the engagement of an audience’s imagination to create vital characters and mood. The play is a one–hour monologue written by Mr. Bennett in 1987 as a screen play for the BBC ...