Classical monologues and scenes for auditions: 20 free pieces

The audition pack says one classical speech, one contemporary. You know the contemporary piece. The classical one is the problem: you open a Complete Works, find a speech everyone has done, and spend the evening wondering whether a panel can sit through another "To be, or not to be".

So we put twenty classical pieces in the practice library: ten monologues and ten two-person scenes. All are public-domain plays, free to read and download, at /practice/monologues and /practice. This post goes through them by playing age, with a running time for each, so you can pick one tonight.

What a classical audition piece needs

A school that asks for classical usually means verse or heightened prose from before the twentieth century. RADA's BA Acting procedure for 2026 entry is the strictest version: two speeches of up to two minutes each, one from Shakespeare or an Elizabethan or Jacobean playwright, originally written in English. Read the current year's rules before you tape, because they change.

Three things matter more than the title. Play a character close to your own age. Know what the character wants from the person they are talking to, even when that person is offstage. And know the whole play, because the panel may ask about the scene before the speech.

Chekhov, Rostand and Goethe were not writing in English. Ours are new translations by blablabla, made for speaking. That is fine for most schools that ask for a classical piece, but not for RADA's Speech A. For that one, use the Shakespeare.

Classical monologues for women

Juliet: the mask of night is a little over a minute, for a playing age of 16 to 25. Juliet has just been overheard saying she loves Romeo, and now she has to ask him for an honest answer without sounding easy. It's short, which helps when the limit is tight.

Lady Macbeth: unsex me here is under a minute, 28 to 50. She calls on the spirits to make her capable of murder. It's the shortest piece here and the most often done, so it needs a specific reason to be yours.

The Seagull: Nina's monologue is about two minutes, 18 to 25. Nina tells Kostya how she learned to walk back onto a stage after failing. The famous seagull line is in it. Play the person who survived, not the breakdown.

Uncle Vanya: Sonya's monologue is about a minute and a half, 20 to 27. Sonya talks her exhausted uncle into carrying on. It's quiet and it's hard, because the comfort has to cost her something.

Faust: Gretchen at the spinning wheel is about a minute, 16 to 22. Gretchen is alone and every task brings her back to Faust. It's a song in the original, and the translation keeps the refrain.

Classical monologues for men

Hamlet: To be, or not to be is just under two minutes, 20 to 35. You know it. If you choose it anyway, choose it because you have something to say about the fear in it, not because it's safe.

Cyrano de Bergerac: the nose speech is about two minutes, 30 to 50. Cyrano shows the viscount every insult he could have made about his nose, then takes away his right to make one. It's comedy with a blade in it, and it rhymes.

Life Is a Dream: Segismundo's lament is two and a half minutes, 18 to 30. Locked up since birth, Segismundo asks heaven why animals get a freedom he doesn't. Segismundo wakes is the second speech, under two minutes, where he can no longer tell waking from dreaming. Together they make a strong pair for a school that wants two classical pieces.

Jeppe on the Hill: why Jeppe drinks is about two minutes, 40 to 60. Jeppe counts up every humiliation and explains why he never hits back. It's funny until it isn't, and older classical speeches for men are hard to find.

Nothing stops a woman from playing Hamlet, Cyrano or Segismundo, or a man from playing Sonya. The playing ages above come from the plays, not from rules.

Classical scenes for two actors

Some auditions and most classes want a duologue. Each of these runs between two and a half and four and a half minutes.

• Romeo and Juliet: the balcony scene, 16 to 25. Juliet makes Romeo prove his promise means something.
• Macbeth: the decision to kill Duncan, 28 to 50. He tries to back out, and she turns it into a test of their marriage.
• Hamlet and Ophelia: the nunnery scene, 17 to 35. She tries to return his gifts. He turns it into an interrogation.
• Much Ado About Nothing: Kill Claudio, 25 to 40. The best scene in the list for two actors who can switch from comedy to danger in one line.
• The Seagull: Nina and Treplev, 18 to 28. Nina comes back after two years. He begs her to stay.
• Uncle Vanya: Sonya and Yelena, 20 to 35, for two women. They make peace, then confess.
• Cyrano and Roxane: beneath the balcony, 18 to 50. In the dark, Cyrano finally speaks in his own voice, and she still thinks it's Christian.
• Miss Julie: the hotel plan, 20 to 35. She wants him to say he loves her. He wants her money for the escape.
• The Importance of Being Earnest: the tea scene, 18 to 28, for two women. Perfect manners as a weapon.
• Faust: Gretchen in prison, 16 to 65. He wants to get her out. She barely knows him anymore.

How to rehearse a classical piece alone

Verse is where rehearsing alone goes wrong. Read silently and you skate over the line endings. Read it out loud with no one opposite you and a duologue turns into a speech.

For a monologue, say it out loud once a day for a week, at performance pace, and time it each day. The time shrinks as you stop reading and start speaking, so trust the late timings. How to rehearse a monologue alone has the full method.

For a scene, you need the other part read to you. Download the Fountain file from the scene's page, import it into blablabla, and choose your character. blablabla speaks the other lines and waits for yours, however long the pause. That matters more for Shakespeare than for anything modern, because the thought often turns in the gap between two lines.

Each piece has notes on objectives and obstacles for its roles. Read them after your own first pass, not before. The rest of the routine, from first read to off-book, is in the complete guide to rehearsing alone.

Where the texts come from

Shakespeare and Wilde are the original English texts. Chekhov, Strindberg, Rostand, Goethe, Calderón and Holberg are new translations by blablabla from the original Russian, Swedish, French, German, Spanish and Danish, written to be said rather than read. Each page names the source edition. You can use any of them to audition, in the room or on a selftape, and for practice and class.

If the panel asks why you chose a piece, have an answer that isn't "it was free". These are cut for auditions, but the play around them is the real preparation.