Cast of Characters In Order of Appearance
Toinette Soubirous................younger daughter, twelve years old
Louise Soubirous..................mother, about thirty-two years old
Bernadette Soubirous............older daughter, fourteen years old
Jeanne Abadie.......................a neighbor, fifteen years old
Francois Soubirous................father, about fifty years old
Louis Bouriette......................the village miller, almost blind
Abbe Peyramale....................the parish priest
Jacomet..................................the chief of police
Villagers.................................men, women and children of Lourdes
Audition Monologues
Please prepare one of the following monologues for your audition. Memorization is preferred but not required.
Bernadette (female):
(hears a loud rushing sound, glances nervously at the sky, and makes the Sign of the Cross) Virgin Mary, protect us! Jeanne! Toinette! Jeanne, come back! There’s a fierce storm coming! Toinette! Oh, dear! What shall I do? I wish I were home. (takes out rosary) Holy Mary, Mother of God, pray for us sinners now!
Is it a cloud I see, dearest Lord? But all golden! Do you make golden clouds Lord, at Massabielle? How very quiet it is! And warm! (feels hands and face) I’m not cold anymore! Maybe I am dying! Papa said you feel warm just before you freeze to death. But all alone! Shall I die all alone? Jeanne! Toinette! Come and help me! (pauses) No, I am not alone! (kneels) Holy Mary Mother of God, pray for us sinners now, and AT THE HOUR OF OUR DEATH.
Bernadette (female):
(gasp) Oh, lovely! (bows while kneeling) How do you do Mademoiselle! I am happy to see you. I am Bernadette Soubirous, daughter of the miller. I live at the cachot in Lourdes. Are you from Lourdes? Excuse me, Mademoiselle. I ask too many questions. Mama always says I do. (face brightens as she has an idea) Would you like to say the Rosary, Mademoiselle? (starts to make the sign of the cross but finds her arm is paralyzed) Mademoiselle! My lovely lady! Something is wrong with my arm! Help me! (looks at the lady and smiles, now able to make the sign of the cross) Ah, now it goes again! You look so very happy, Mademoiselle. I guess you have made your first communion already? Maybe years ago? I am fourteen you know. Old enough. But I am thick in the head they say. I guess you would not know about that. You must have been very bright in school. I don’t usually talk about it, but I feel I have known you for a long time-- Isn’t that strange? Why are you smiling? Oh! I think you want to get on with the Rosary, don’t you? All right. But will you pray for me Mademoiselle? I want to make my First Communion. I want it more than anything else in the world.
Toinette (female):
Mama, when is our Lent? Next week will be the other people’s Lent, it is not for us, Soubirous. Abbe Peyramale says that Lent is a time to make sacrifices. He told us we should give up sweetmeats and not spend our money on hair ribbons, but give it up for the missions. The Abbe said Lent is for giving up things (spreads her arms wide) we have nothing to give up! So this cannot be for us. Is there a different Lent for the Soubirous, Mama? How can you give up sugar lumps if you don’t have any?
Toinette (female):
Oh, but I’m sorry, Bernadette! I am mean, mean, mean. I guess maybe I’ll go to Hell. (face brightens with a happy thought) It’s warm in Hell, isn’t it? That would be nice!
Your Reverence, every time I say anything, someone says: Hush up, Toinette! Why is that?
(Hush, Child!)
You see, Your Reverence! Everybody says it to me!
(Listens as the Abbe tells her something) My goodness! Don’t tell Mama that, Your Reverence! She’ll box my ears. I think maybe I won’t talk at all anymore.
Jacomet (male/female):
Sounds like a plot. Now let me tell you something, Bernadette. If all this crazy business were just for you, I'd be a happy policeman with nothing to worry about but thieves and cutthroats, people I can deal with. But this affair is for all Lourdes. And it's creeping all over France. Didn't the mayor find an article in a Paris paper about the tomfoolery in Lourdes! Aren't we being made fools of! Now you tell me the truth! Who is paying you to tell all these lies?
Jacomet (male/female):
Darned fools. It's enough to turn your stomach. And to think she actually took me in for a while! Sickly brat! I'll never live it down! Me, Jacomet, chief of police,--and almost fooled by a whining girl! I'm the lucky one. I'm the man to see the truth. So what if I did make a mistake once? Only a big man can admit his mistakes. That's Jacomet! A big man. I think I'll go home. They're all gone now. This place gives me the jim-jams. Maybe the Soubirous brat is a witch for all we know. I just don't like the air here.
Abbe (male/female):
(Speaking to Jacomet) You came face to face with yourself here one day when you watched Bernadette talking with the Mother of God. It broke you in two. And who is a man until he has been broken into pieces? But you couldn’t stand it, Jacomet. You used a child with mud on her face to patch up your own bravado again. You’re the fool, Jacomet! That’s why you keep on shouting that everyone else is. Every blackhearted sinner in Lourdes has been accusing Bernadette of his own sins. Everyone has been blaming her for coveting the things he wants himself,--money, praise, fame. But there is only one thing she has wanted. And she’s going to have it, do you hear me, Jacomet? Stand back, man! I’m going to put a knife right through your heart! (pulls out communion veil and places it on Bernadette’s head) She is going to have the only thing she wants in life. She is going to make her First Communion, Jacomet
Abbe (male/female):
Your daughter is bringing discredit on the church, on Lourdes, on the abbe of Lourdes. Bye telling fables that light-headed people believe as though they were part of the Creed! Bod knows religion is little enough respected these days. Now Bernadette is making our holy Religion a regular laughing-stock to outsiders. And she is not going to continue, do you understand me? My dear Soubirous, I’m very well aware that you are not the man to concern yourself with present realities, but even you must know that this “pretty story” is growing into a cult. Good, level-headed people going completely off their heads over your daughter’s wild tales. Sensible folk running out to that old grotto of Massabielle to gape at your girl talking to the rocks, instead of attending to their devotions in the church.
Louis (male/female):
Remember I have a little sight left, Louise Soubirous! Don’t think you are putting anything over on me. I’ve got a better head on my shoulders than your man, anyday. Here you are, cold and hungry most of the time, bringing up your children in a jail that isn’t good enough for thieves and cutthroats to be held in. And here I am, with half an eye left to me and my mill ready to close down any day. Then fate sends us a golden opportunity to make a good pile of money with no harm done to anybody. And you start getting squeamish.
Louis (male/female):
I need another miracle, Abbe. I was satisfied with myself when I was blind. Sure, I was bitter. Hadn’t God given me a raw deal? I thought I’d go Him one better. Nothing was too low for me. Not even cashing in on a saint. Remember that sign I wanted to put up? But everyone wants to see me now. I’m the prize exhibit. The blind man who can see again. Not that I blame them. But I’ll tell you this, Abbe. It’s a terrible thing to be cured. It’s a terrible thing to have the self-pity and bitterness stripped off you. I have to look at myself now. And God in Heaven, what a sight it is!
Francois (male/female):
Yes, there is plenty of work for the mother of a family. Her companions? That’s right, Abbe. Bernadette here is getting to be a real young lady. Good companion for her mother. Lots of help, too. Well, I hate to go when we have such a distinguished visitor as yourself, Abbe, but I have to see a certain party about a business deal we have on. You give Bernadette here a little boost with her catechism, won’t you, Abbe? Louise will be back soon. She’ll fix some lunch. Well, have a nice visit. Watch your manners now, Bernadette. It’s a privilege to talk to the abbe here. You how him you appreciate it. Tell His Reverence about the lady and those yellow roses. Good-day, Abbe. It’s quite a story she has there. Get her to tell you the whole thing.
Louise (female):
What can I do, Abbe? I can’t send her to school. How am I going to tell her she can’t make her First Communion? She’ll be heartbroken. Oh, dear God, how can I disappoint Bernadette again? Mother of God, help her! Teach her, teach her yourself. Mother of God, you must understand Patois as well as French.
Louise (female):
Oh my Gosh! Bernadette gone sick in her head and lying like the devil himself! The whole town buzzing with gossip about us. Abbe Peyramale in a cold fury. And now the police stepping in. And he asks what I am upset about! Yes, you can laugh, Francois Soubirous! You go out in the morning and I am left to answer the door to every curious man, woman and child in Lourdes. There! Some other busybody! Now you see how you like the company, Francois!
Jeanne (female): You crazy Bernadette Soubirous! Here you are, right where I left you! I come back all this way because I thought you must have fallen, and I find you talking worse nonsense than ever! Tweet! Tweet! It’s no wonder you are such a dunce at your catechism, Bernadette. Just wait! Just wait until we get back to the cachot! I’ll tell your mother on you. Come on, both of you, before I box your ears! I’ll get to the bottom of this. Birds! Violins! You’ll hear a different tune when you get home!
Jeanne (female):
Huh! I like that all right! She’s the strongest one of us all, that’s what. And pretending to be sick! Come on, I’m going home. And don’t be lagging behind and pretending you are tired again, Bernadette. The nerve! Warm as toast and us half frozen! There’s another bundle of sticks across the stream, lazybones. At least you can pick that up.
