This is a two to three minute darkly comic monologue and is contemporary. Suggested age range is 30+ but really, I've seen plenty of college students perform this and do an awesome job so whatevs. Frankly a guy can do it too, who cares. There's nothing really gender specific about the monologue if taken as a standalone piece.
Ok so full disclosure this monologue used to be WAY overdone as an audition piece when I was in school back in the aughts. Not sure if that's still the case for students attending college after the advent of the steam engine ... check with your drama teacher, coach or colleagues. But it is hilarious.
So the premise:
Imagine you're a child taken to see the show Peter Pan, a children's fantasy filled with wonder and hope, right? Nope! Instead Wendy and the flying children keep falling to the ground because the ropes are breaking. The crocodile isn't an actor but a real crocodile. And in the scene where Tinkerbell needs all the children to clap and revive her ... she dies.
By taking this classic story, which we all know, and completely destroying our expectation of what it should be and replacing it with a horror show some deep comedy gold is mined.
Durang is irreverent, absurd and on point with his humor here. No surprise since the guy is consistently brilliant and funny in basically everything he writes. I hate him. If it's not an overdone audition piece where you are, perform this one! Post haste!
Find the monologue toward the bottom of page 271 of the book Christopher Durang Volume 1: 27 Short Plays. Monologue starts toward the bottom of page 271 with the line "When I was eight years old ... " and ends toward the bottom of 272 with "nothing seems worth trying if Tinkerbell's just going to die."
Favorite quote from this monologue:
"That wasn't enough. You didn't clap hard enough. Tinkerbell's dead."