Angels in America
By Tony KushnerRoy Cohn, fictionalized. Famous corrupt lawyer, dying of AIDS. In the first three monologues he is talking to Joe.
ROY:
Please. Let me finish.
Few people know this and I'm telling you this only because...I'm not afraid of death. What can death bring that I haven't faced? I've lived; life is the worst. (Gently mocking himself.) Listen to me, I'm a philosopher.
Joe. You must do this. You must, must, must. Love; that's a trap. Responsibility; that's a trap too. Like a father to a son I tell you this: Life is full of horror; nobody escapes, nobody; save yourself. Whatever pulls on you, whatever needs from you, threatens you. Don't be afraid; people are so afraid; don't be afraid to live in the raw wind, naked, alone...Learn at least this: What you are capable of. Let nothing stand in your way.
ROY:
If you want the smoke and puffery you can listen to Kissinger and Schultz and those guys, but if you want to look at the heart of modern conservatism, you look at me. Everyone else has abandoned the struggle, everything nowadays is just sipping tea with Nixon and Mao. That was disgusting, did you see that? Were you born yet?
My generation, we had clarity. Unafraid to look deep into the miasma at the heart of the world, what a pit, what a nightmare is there - I have looked, I have searched all my life for the absolute bottom, and I found it, believe me: Stygian. How tragic, how brutal and short life is. How sinful people are. The immutable heart of what we are that bleeds through whatever we might become. All else is vanity.
I don't know the world anymore.
After I die they'll say it was for the money and the headlines. But it was never the money: it's the moxie that counts. I never wavered. You remember.
You seen a lady around here, dumpy lady, stupid hat? She...Oh boy. Oh boy, no, she's off watching the hearings. Treacherous...
Did you get a blessing from your father before he died? He should have done that. Life. That's what they're supposed to bless. Life.
Roy, recently dead, returns to talk to Joe for a minute.
ROY:
I'm dead Joe. It doesn't matter.
You could have read it in the paper. AIDS. I didn't want you to get the wrong impression.
You feel bad that you beat somebody. He deserved it. Everybody does. Everybody could use a good beating.
Damn. I gotta shuffle off this mortal coil. I hope they have something for me to do in the Great Hereafter, I get bored easy.
You'll find, my friend, that what you love will take you places you never dreamed.
Roy, recently dead, is talking to God Himself, about a paternity suit that God might face if he returns to Heaven after being absent for more than 70 years.
ROY:
Paternity suit? Abandonment? Family court is my particularly metier, I'm an absolute demon with Family Law. Just tell me who the judge is, and what kind of jewelry he likes. If it's a jury, it's harder, juries take more talk but sometimes it's worth it, going jury, for what it saves you in bribes. Yes I will represent you, King of the Universe, yes I will sing and eviscerate, I will bully and seduce, I will win for you and make the plaintiffs, those traitors, wish they had never heard the name of God!
Is it a done deal, are we on? Good, then I gotta start by telling you, you ain't got a case here, you're guilty as hell, no question, you have nothing to plead but not to worry, darling, I will make something up.
Order Angels in America from Amazon.
This monologue brought to you by The Monologue Database.