Monologues for Women

I Remember Mama

I Remember Mama
by John van Druten (1944)

Character: KATRIN— Katrin is a petite blonde in her early twenties.

Situation: This monologue opens the play and functions as a prologue. The play takes place in and around San Francisco in 1910. Seated at the desk facing the audience, Katrin is writing a reminiscence of her childhood.

KATRIN— (Reading) "For as long as I could remember, the house on Steiner Street had been home. Papa and Mama had both been born in Norway, but they came to San Francisco because Mama's sisters were here. All of us were born here. Nels, the oldest and the only boy— my sister Christine— and the littlest sister, Dagmar." (She puts down her manuscript and looks out front.) It's funny, but when I look back, I always see Nels and Christine and myself looking almost as we do today. I guess that's because the people you see all the time stay the same age in your head. Dagmar's different. She was always the baby so I see her as a baby. Even Mama, it's funny, but I always see mama is around 40. She couldn't have been 40. (she picks up her manuscript and starts to read again.)

"Besides us, there was our border, Mr. Hyde. Mr. Hyde was an Englishman who had once been an actor, and Mama was very impressed by his flowery talk in courtly manners. He used to read aloud to us in the evenings. But first in for most, I remember Mama."