blablabla
← All practice scripts
Family dramawrytenderrestrained

The Haircut

On the first Sunday of the month, a daughter arrives to cut her widowed father's hair as she has for four years, and finds someone else has already done it.

Jump to the script ↓
Casting range
Viktor 58-72; Clara 30-40. Either role may be cast without regard to gender or ethnicity, adjusting names and pronouns.
Duration
4 min
Difficulty
Intermediate
Relationship
Widowed father and adult daughter
Role balance
balanced
Setting
A small kitchen in the father's flat on a Sunday morning. A chair in the middle of the floor, a towel, clippers, and a pair of good scissors on the table.
Scene heading
INT. VIKTOR'S FLAT - KITCHEN - SUNDAY MORNING
Content notes
Death of a parent four years earlier is referred to, A parent beginning a new relationship, & An adult child moving abroad
Language
English
Open this scene in blablabla
Download PDFDownload Fountain

The app reads the other part aloud and waits for you to say your lines.

If you install the app from the preview, come back and tap Open in app again.

Read this scene in another languageThe app opens this scene in the language you choose here.
Scene work

What is playable here

Objective
Viktor wants to tell her he has been invited away for Christmas; Clara wants to tell him she is moving abroad.
Obstacle
Each believes the news will leave the other alone at Christmas, so both have been protecting the other from it.
Relationship
Since the mother died, the monthly haircut has been how they look after each other without saying so.
Stakes
The first Christmas apart, and whether the ritual ends as a loss or changes hands.
Turn
Clara confesses the job during the back, Viktor reveals he has known for weeks and has been practising in a barber's chair, and Clara gives him the scissors.

Playing age 58-72

Viktor

Wants: Tell Clara about Marit and Christmas without making her feel she is being replaced, and let her leave without guilt.

Up against: The haircut is the last ritual they have, and he already knows she is about to give it up.

Choice prompts

  • Viktor is funnier than his daughter thinks. Let every joke about the barber be a cover he enjoys using.
  • He has known about the job since October. Play the whole first half as a man waiting patiently for the back of his head.
  • The last line is about the mother and about Clara at the same time. Do not choose between them.

Playing age 30-40

Clara

Wants: Keep the first Sunday exactly as it has always been until she has told him she is leaving.

Up against: A stranger's straight line has already broken the ritual, and her father keeps arriving at the truth before she does.

Choice prompts

  • Clara treats the barber like a rival. Let the jealousy be real and a little ridiculous.
  • She tells hard news during the back so she does not have to see his face. Use the clippers to hide behind.
  • Handing him the scissors is the whole scene reversing. Decide whether she is giving him a job or asking for one.
Full script

The Haircut

Download PDFDownload Fountain

INT. VIKTOR'S FLAT - KITCHEN - SUNDAY MORNING

Viktor sits on a kitchen chair in the middle of the floor with a towel around his shoulders. Clara clicks a guard onto the electric clippers, then stops, staring at the back of his neck.

Clara

Who did this?

Viktor

Did what?

Clara

Your neck. There is a line on your neck. A straight line.

Viktor

I have always had a neck.

Clara

Not a straight one. I do not do straight, Dad. I do a soft fade and hope. Somebody took a razor to you.

Viktor

There is a man on the corner by the bakery. I went in to read his newspaper, and he put a cape on me.

Clara

And you could not say no.

Viktor

He had already started. It is rude to leave with half a head.

Clara

So I drove an hour to cut hair that has already been cut.

Viktor

It grows. Take off half. It is the first Sunday. We do the first Sunday.

Clara switches the clippers on.

Clara

Head down.

Viktor

Your mother liked a straight line. She said it made me look like a bank manager.

Clara

Since when do you go past the bakery? You buy your bread at the market.

Viktor

Marit likes their rye.

Clara

Who is Marit?

Viktor

From the choir. Second altos.

Clara

You are a tenor.

Viktor

Marit brings cake to the break. The tenors stand very near the cake.

Clara

What else does Marit bring?

Viktor

An invitation. Her daughter's house, up north, for Christmas. Five days.

Clara switches the clippers off.

Clara

Christmas is here.

Viktor

Christmas has been here for four years. You do the duck. I burn the potatoes. We watch your mother's film, and we both go and stand in the kitchen during the song.

Clara

So go.

Viktor

I told her no. I told her my daughter comes.

Clara moves behind him and switches the clippers on again.

Clara

Keep your head down. I am doing the back.

Viktor

You always tell me things during the back. The car. The divorce. The tattoo. So I cannot turn round.

Clara

I have been offered a job. In another country. It starts on the first of December.

Viktor

I know.

Clara

You do not know.

Viktor

In October you rang a removal company from my sofa. On speaker. You always put things on speaker. Seven cubic metres, and they will not take plants.

Clara

Then why did you not say anything?

Viktor

You were going to tell me during the back. I was saving you the back.

Clara

I was going to fly home for Christmas. Two days. I had a whole speech about two days being better than none.

Viktor

Flights at Christmas cost a kidney. Keep your kidney.

Clara lowers the clippers and looks closer.

Clara

He has done the back twice. There is an old line under the new one.

Viktor

I went twice. I wanted to see if I could sit in a stranger's chair and not make a fuss.

Clara

So ring Marit.

Viktor

She will be unbearable about it.

Clara switches the clippers off, takes the towel from his shoulders, puts it around her own, sits in the chair, and holds the scissors out to him.

Clara

Just the ends. Two centimetres.

Viktor

I have never cut anybody's hair.

Clara

You have watched me do yours forty-eight times.

Viktor

With my eyes closed.

Clara

Then this will be interesting.

Viktor lifts a strand of her hair between two fingers. The scissors open.

Viktor

Sit still. Your mother always moved.

Rehearsal license

blablabla Free Rehearsal License

Copyright © 2026 Vox Vera ApS. You may use these original scenes and monologues for personal acting practice, auditions, instructor-led classes and workshops, and selftapes, subject to the terms below.

Permitted uses

  • Personal acting and line rehearsal, including a working copy shared with one scene partner
  • Auditions: performing a piece in the room, or recording it as an audition selftape, for casting, an agent or a drama school
  • Instructor-led acting classes and scene-study workshops
  • Practice selftapes and private portfolio exercises

Restrictions

  • No resale, relicensing, publication, or redistribution outside the permitted uses above
  • No commercial production, broadcast, paid performance, or monetized adaptation without separate written permission
  • No removal of the copyright notice or license text from downloaded or shared working copies
  • No claim that the material is official, affiliated with, or endorsed by any referenced entertainment brand

Tips & Guides for Actors

The complete guide to rehearsing aloneEverything an actor needs to rehearse without a scene partner - techniques, tools, and the mindset that makes solo work count.How to stay warm between acting jobsThe actors who keep booking are warm, not chosen. Nine free scenes in 33 languages, and a practice habit that fits a week with nothing booked.What is a scene partner? (and what to do when you don't have one)A scene partner is the other actor in your scene, the one whose lines you answer. What that means in class, in the room, at home, and when there is nobody.
Blog →

Using Claude? Ask it for a scene or a monologue from this library, and a plan for the days you have. How it works →