The monologues in Lungs are not traditional set-pieces meant to showcase an actor’s dramatic range in a vacuum. They are functional, high-velocity engines that drive the narrative forward. They demand immense stamina from the actors, requiring them to intellectualize and emote simultaneously.
Duncan Macmillan’s 2011 play Lungs is a masterclass in minimalism and intensity. Performed without props or scenery—often on a bare stage—the play relies entirely on the rhythmic, frantic dialogue between two characters, M and W. While the script is a rapid-fire duologue, there are moments where the text swells into what can be considered a distinct monologue: a sustained, breathless argument that one character delivers while the other listens, reacts, or retreats.
One of the most popular monologues for female actors occurs early in the play, immediately after M suggests having a baby while they are standing in an IKEA. Duncan Macmillan: Some Thoughts on Lungs - Studio Theatre lungs duncan macmillan monologue
Write down three things:
The play follows a young, educated couple as they navigate the ethical and emotional minefield of deciding whether to have a child in a world facing environmental collapse. The Female Monologue (W): "I'm thinking out loud" The monologues in Lungs are not traditional set-pieces
She doesn't just think about the diapers; she thinks about the diapers' manufacturing process, the trucking logistics, the plastic wrapping, the trees cut down, and the economic disparity between the West and the developing world. She extrapolates a single child into a lineage of carbon consumers stretching a thousand years into the future.
The brilliance of the monologue lies in how quickly it pivots from the macro to the micro. It begins with the fate of the planet—melting ice caps, dying polar bears, the collapse of ecosystems. However, as the speech accelerates, it reveals itself to be about something much smaller and more intimate: the couple’s relationship. Duncan Macmillan’s 2011 play Lungs is a masterclass
Lungs works because M is us—educated, anxious, loving, and frozen. The monologue isn’t about winning an argument. It’s about a man realizing that knowing better doesn’t mean doing better. If you can hold that contradiction in your voice and body, you’ll break an audience’s heart.