Lord of the Flies - William Golding

This monologue is by Simon:

My mind isn’t right. It isn’t. I’ll have one of my goes if I’m not careful. My mind- (he turns. Calls.) Ra-alph!

Jack signals to his troupe to stop. They do so.

If Ralph was here… When I was eight I think… When I was eight I went down to the country and there… There was this horse in a field and… (Stops. Calls) Ra-alph!

Pause. The three in search of the beasts have moved on again but jack signals with a brief ululation for them to stop.

If Ralph was here- Ralph would know. (He stops. The faint moonlight catches the pigs head. It’s right behind him and he hasn’t seen it in the darkness. Freezes with fear. A whimper) Oh. Oh no.

Jack signals his troupe on again and just as he does so, Simon calls.

(shouts) Ra-alph!

Jack calls to them to stop. They do so.

Simon is in front of the pigs head.

It’s blood. And it’s flies. It’s blood. (He starts to reach for the head.) That head. That head. When I was eight I saw a man kill a bird. And I thought… Merridew says I don’t pull my weight. Funny. Why should you pull weight? Eh, piggy? Piggy? (He is touching it with a thrill of horror.) Those are flies. There’s blood and there is flies. It’s not my fault there’s blood and flies is it? You look stupid come to that. (He starts to work the pigs mouth, like a puppet’s.) ‘Oh no I don’t!’ ‘oh yes you do!’ ‘You’re a bad boy do you hear me!’ (Starting to giggle.)  Like Jenkins on that picnic. ‘You’re no go, boy!’ ‘You’re no go!’ ‘I’m not no go, sir!’ ‘Oh yes you are- you’re an ignorant, silly little boy! And I know you are because I’m the beast! You hear me! I’m the beast!’ (He scared himself. Starting to feel the fit coming on him.) You’re not. You’re not. Pigs head on a stick. You’re just a silly… (Very scared) I feel funny. I’m going to… don’t make me have a turn, sir, will you? Please don’t let me have a turn, sir. Ralph! Ralph! (And the fit starts. He begins reaching out for the head then falls, feet drumming on the earth, choking.)

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I really liked this monologue, there are a few reasons for this, the first being that it is different from what I would usually perform, this is good because it shows that I have a variety of acting skills. This is different from the other two speeches I have chosen because  the one I chose from Look Back in Anger by Jimmy Porter is very naturalistic and relies on the words and the vocal aility whereas this monologue contains lots of silence, this means I can show the emotional and mental state of the character through facial expressions and physicality. If a drama school asked me for two audition speeches I believe that these two would contrast well and I would be able to show that I can put myself in the emotional state of both characters. This monologue is quite realistic and invokes techniques like mime. I like this monologue because there is a lot tat I can do with it. I believe the main tone of this speech is feverish or melancholy, this is shown by the way that the themes and text of the speech are quite gloomy. This is feverish because at this point in the play Simon is ill. In my opinion there is a bit of grotesqueness. I tried to include this grotesqueness but in a small way because Simon is quite a small character and I didn't want to go over the top. An example of a Berkovian technique I used was exaggerated mime. 

Throughout the play Simon is confronted with multiple horrid tasks that no schoolboy should ever have to face, this makes it hard for me to sympathise and/or emphasise with him. For example, in the beginning of the play Simon and the rest of the boys suffer a plane crash on a desolate island where they then have to survive, Simon being unfriended wanders off where he finds a severed pigs head on a stick, the head, covered in flies is what Simon believes to be the 'Lord of the Flies'. Simon talks to himself and also has visions of the head talking to him, resulting in him literally scaring himself to death.

Here is my first read through of the script: 

Here are the notes I was given:

• Need to fixate the pigs head in one spot and keep it there
• Walk towards the head so there's more movement
• Eyes were moving around too much, keep eyes fixated
• Don't turn head to shout Ralph, we thought it'd be a better idea if I kept my eyes forward or looking at the pig showing that Simon is scared.
• Work on the mime
• Keep feet in place when miming because it means I can turn back and it will be easier to relocate where the head is
• Bigger pauses, this will make the monologue much more effective.

I used these notes to improve my performance, one way I did this was by focusing my eyes to a certain spot on the wall, this spot was where the pigs head was, this was effective because there was no movement in my eyes when I was looking at the pig which made the scene much more realistic.

In this piece I took a couple of creative risks for example I used quite a southern accent which was not too difficult for me as it is not an accent that is uncommon to me I believe this paid off nonetheless in a big way as it helped separate the character from myself.
Also, I used mime in my piece, in the scene Simon talks to a pigs head on a stick, I could've played the part without the mime and just spoke to the audience but I believe it was more effective for the audience to see me talking to something that I had to convince them was real.

I used my tone of voice, body language and facial expressions excessively to portray Simon for example, my body language mimicked that of a timid schoolboy who was cold and alone, I was hunched over with my arms crossed in a protective manner. I was nervous going into this monologue so I used that to my advantage, I did this by shaking a lot showing that I was cold and scared I also breathed heavily with a shaky breath. This was effective because it gave the audience more insight into the conditions inside Simon's mind.