What makes for the most compelling monologues? The same thing that makes for the most compelling dialogue. Anything that points to actual human communication.
All Dialogue is Action. We Speak in Service of Intention.
I open my mouth to speak to you. I have an agenda. Something in mind I intend to communicate with you specifically. And being human, of course, your reaction to my words as they spill out of me will never be entirely predictable... never quite what I may have expected.
Before. When I rehearsed or imagined the conversation and how it might go, I may have braced myself for resistance. Or I may have imagined my logic to be so airtight that as I plan what I'd like to say I may actually imagine any resistance simply crumbling or dissolving in the face of such powerful and indisputable wisdom. The possibilities for what we might hope for or expect or seek from others' reactions to whatever we have to say are virtually infinite.
But perfect frictionless agreement? I suppose if I were addressing a mirror, I could hope to be met with that kind of predictable assent.
The Response to Our Words is Never Predictable
The beauty of writing scripts is that, like life, they are populated with individual human beings, each with their own lived experience which continuously feeds into a set of evolving world views, ideologies, moralities, priorities and areas of reactivity. Put two of your characters in a situation in which they're both emotionally invested and there's no end to the mayhem and mischief that may ensue.
We Cannot Help But Be Changed By Every Attempt at Communication
And in the end, no matter how it all plays out, one thing is absolutely true for your two characters at the end of the encounter (or scene). When all is said and done, what they feel now about their shared situation is different from where they were at the top of the scene, before certain words were spoken. Furthermore, their current emotional state is in large part a direct product of the unique alchemy that exists between these two people around this topic. Change out one of your two characters and the scene could not possibly follow the same path and would deposit us in a completely different territory.
This is the definition of communication. Communication never exists in a vacuum.
I speak. And even if you don't say a word and so, in effect, our dialogue is my monologue, we are still communicating and I will be changed by how my words are received by you in real time. My feelings about what I'm saying will change and my feelings about our relationship will change to name just two of the most obvious elements among countless ideas and feelings which are floating around and shifting hue and intensity as the world around us shifts.
Nobody Wants to See Characters Who the World Cannot Touch
We don't go to the theatre to see static characters whose convictions and feelings about themselves and the world around them remain unchanged from start to finish. No! We want to see human beings effected by the circumstances of their lives, their choices, their relationships because only by observing human change can we begin to tap into our own lives in search of meaning.
Change is Where We Look for Life's Meaning
When two people are changed by their interaction, the interaction becomes meaningful.
And meaning is what we all long for. Mostly we invent it in various ways but, even so, it provides us some comfort in living our lives which without meaning might be impossible to endure.
