PLCN Titles

Solo Performance

volume twenty in the “Critical Perspectives on Canadian Theatre in English” series

edited by Jenn Stephenson

Simultaneously both a very old device—appearing in the speeches of the ancient Greek chorus leader—and also a relative newcomer—developing out of performance- art traditions and encouraged by the current zeitgeist for autobiographical revelation—solo performance shifts the terms of the audience’s engagement with the fictional character. With only one performer on the stage, we are invited to pose the question, “Who is this person talking to?” And so, in that bid to address the audience directly, a different kind of relationship is formed between the audience and the character, between actual and fictional worlds. The essays in this collection examine the phenomenon of the solo play or monodrama from a range of perspectives to create a kind of collective portrait of the actor alone on stage.

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