Anatomies by don nigro monologues

Anatomies is a play for 7 men and 4 women set in Edinburgh, Scotland, and London during the 1820s. The unit set represents all locations; action is uninterrupted in each of the two acts; and players may enter and exit from just about anywhere.

“The actors move, the set doesn’t.”  We hear the sound of a hurdy-gurdy as the lights come up and we hear McGonigle, a ragged old street singer, as the stage fills with people. (Nigro provides lyrics and music for the five songs that McGonigle sings throughout the play.)  Dr.

Knox comes on last and, when the song ends and light focuses on him center stage, he begins his lecture toward the audience on the importance of studying human anatomy by dissecting cadavers. He whips back the sheet covering the naked corpse of “an extremely old, incredibly hideous man,” and raises a cutting instrument as McGonigle sings another verse of the song and moves into darkness.

Lights fade on Knox and come up on Burke, Hare, Mrs. Hare, and Helen Macdougal