One is the Loneliest Number: This Year's Solo Shows

As comedy takes the foreground, it’s hard to compare conventional theatre to stand-up comedy, particularly as the latter is more economical and sometimes more engaging than a play. Of course, that is not to say there are no viable plays that are engaging for the audience, however, the average turnaround time of a Fringe venue seems to be under the five to six minute mark. This is a challenge for theatre, as the creation of an entire world rests on the shoulders of the acting, and making an intelligent use of the space. Combined with the recession, and the lack of time, one-person shows seem to be handy during the Fringe.

Then again, it could be said putting on a one-person show is to return to the roots of theatre, as it was in antiquity, since surviving scripts from that time indicate a clear evolution from the existence of a collective chorus in the theatre to introducing a distinct actor. Classical tragedian Aeschylus (525/524 BC-c.456/455 BC) is often credited with introducing the second actor, in order to create dialogue and conflict between the two. However, one-person shows seem to be trendy right now.

There are quite a few semi-biographical one-person shows, like Apphia Campbell's Black is the Color of My Voice that follows the tale of civil rights activist and jazz musician Mena Bordeaux through the filter of Nina Simone and her music. Then, there’s ex-Bond girl Dame Diana Rigg, with her one-woman spoken word performance Dame Diana Rigg: No Turn Unstoned, in which she reveals anecdotes from her experiences on TV, film and on the stage.

On the less well-known side of celebrity-based shows, Glenn Cosby – Great British Bake Off 2013 runner up – makes his stage debut with Glenn Cosby: Food Junkie. There will be baking, and there will be cake. While cake is one of Cosby’s great loves, it is not the focus of his show. Through casual conversation and with the aid of said baked good, he tackles subjects from coming out to binging on food and our relationship with food nowadays.

Meanwhile, Gary McNair prepares for his own one-man show Donald Robertson is Not a Stand-Up Comedian at the Traverse. Through mentoring from McNair, Robertson tries to build rapport with strangers in order to be funny and make friends. McNair delves into the dark side of comedy, and perhaps, by extension, of human nature. After all, what would you do if everyone hated you? 

Another new writing, one-man show – perhaps the darkest of this compilation – appears in the guise of the Old Joint Stock Theatre company’s revival of Fragile, written by Geoff Thompson. The BAFTA-winning writer presents the tale of a man who was abused by a teacher at the age of eleven, and now strives for inner peace through confessing to a tape recorder. Sounding like a fusion of Krapp’s Last Tape (Samuel Beckett) and Blackbird (David Harrower), this incredibly dark play is brought to life by Nigel Francis. While already controversial (it was cancelled when first performed in 2012 at Belgrade Theatre, Coventry), it makes for an interesting comparison to existing literature and other plays about abuse, like Nabokov’s Lolita or Harrower’s Blackbird, where the abused character is female, and the dynamics of who is seducing whom are blurred. Thompson’s main character is male, which brings up interesting questions about the nature of abuse, and the victim-blaming culture that female survivors of abuse and sexual harassment are often put through. 

Taking into account these shows and many more, it's clear the one-person show is not the death of theatre by any means. The same rules apply, although with attention spans waning, it seems harder for one person to carry an entire show. Fortunately, the aforementioned performers are extremely talented.