Roberta monologue from Danny And The Deep Blue Sea

Roberta’s monologue

That’s what it is. There’s boats right up by Westchester Square. What’s that, twenty blocks? Look sometime, you’ll see ’em. Not the real big ones, but big. Sea boats.I met a sailor in the bar one time. In the outfit, you know? I was all over him. But he turned out to be nothin but a pothead. He giggled a lot. It was too bad because … Well, it was too bad.

When we got married, me and Billy, that was my husband, we smoked a ball of opium one night. It really knocked me out. I fell asleep like immediately. And I dreamed about the ocean. It was real blue. And there was the sun, and it was real yellow. And I was out there, right in the middle of the ocean, and I heard this noise. I turned around, and whaddaya think I saw? Just about right next to me. A whale! A whale carne shootin straight outta the water! A whale! Yeah! And he opened up his mouth and closed it while he-was up there in the air. And people on the boat said, Look! The whales are jumpin! And no shit, these whales start jumpin outta the water all over the place. And I can see them! Through one a those round windows. Or right out in the open. Whales! Gushin outta the water, and the water gushin outta their heads, you know, spoutin! And then, after a while, they all stopped jumpin. It got quiet. Everybody went away. The water smoothed out. But I kept lookin at the ocean. So deep and blue. And different. It was different then. ‘Cause I knew it had all them whales in it.

Excerpt for study and audition practice. Read the full play for context.