Isabella — “To Whom Should I Complain?”
The deputy Angelo has just told Isabella, a novice nun, that he'll spare her condemned brother only if she sleeps with him. Alone, she realizes no one would believe her word against a powerful man's. She resolves to tell her brother — certain his honour means he'll choose her chastity and his own death. She wants to hold her ground in an impossible bind.
To whom should I complain? Did I tell this,
Who would believe me? O perilous mouths,
That bear in them one and the self-same tongue
Either of condemnation or approof,
Bidding the law make curtsy to their will,
Hooking both right and wrong to th’ appetite,
To follow as it draws! I’ll to my brother.
Though he hath fall’n by prompture of the blood,
Yet hath he in him such a mind of honour
That, had he twenty heads to tender down
On twenty bloody blocks, he’d yield them up
Before his sister should her body stoop
To such abhorred pollution.
Then, Isabel, live chaste, and, brother, die.
More than our brother is our chastity.
I’ll tell him yet of Angelo’s request,
And fit his mind to death, for his soul’s rest.
How to Play It
It opens on an outrage — she's just been propositioned and cornered — and moves to a decision. Track that arc: helpless fury at the corruption of power, then the steadying resolve as she convinces herself her brother will agree. The chilling line 'More than our brother is our chastity' should cost her, not come easily.
The trap is playing pure piety. Isabella is fierce and intelligent; the speech is a mind fighting to find footing, not a saint reciting principle. Keep the stakes personal — this is her brother's life.
Startlingly current subject matter, rarely performed, and a clean under-a-minute arc from shock to decision — casting sees a whole journey fast.
Strong for women in their 20s–30s who can play conviction under threat. An underdone piece that reads as fresh and urgent.
Want Will to Coach You Through It?
A monologue is a two-person scene where the other person never speaks. Working it 1-on-1 with a working actor is the fastest way to make it land.