Examples of solo performance have existed since records of theatre and performance activity have been available, but often here the ‘solo’ involves the delivery of some sort of monologue or soliloquy which takes place within a performance that includes other performers. Traditional storytellers, working on their own in a performance context, might also be classed as solo performers. Solo performance in a contemporary context usually involves the creation of a performance or piece of theatre which involves only one actor or performer, often playing many different roles. This is a traditional form which has developed from work by such nineteenth century figures as Fanny Kelly in the UK and Mark Twain in the US, who created solo works and performed to popular audiences as well as having careers outside of solo performance work.
For many performers, the development of solo performance work was a professional strategy to ensure the longevity of a career where roles were limited by economics, age and availability. This is a strategy which has informed a great deal of twentieth and twenty-first century solo performance practice in terms of its place in the theatre industry – solo work is economically viable, easier to tour, within the control of the performer and utilizes a multiplicity of performance skills simultaneously. During the early parts of the twentieth century solo performers often worked in popular performance contexts such as music hall and variety theatres, as well as smaller private performances in independent theatres. Here, solo performances which displayed multiple characters dominated. Later, in the twentieth century, solo performance has become far more autobiographical either in content or in predominance of performers using autobiographic strategies, in the ways in which their performance mediates between the first person singular and the performance persona. In many contemporary solo performance works the distinction between the performer and the performance is minimal. As a form, solo performance traverses multiple performance contexts with ease – from performance and live art to stand-up to third theatre and festival circuits and television and new media.
Image: Odin Teatret & CTLS Archives. Work Demonstration: The Whispering Winds. Director: Eugenio Barba. Photo © Tony D’Urso