Monodrama
A monodrama is a theatrical or operatic piece played by a single actor or singer, usually portraying one character.
In opera
In opera, a monodrama was originally a
The term monodrama (sometimes mono-opera) is also applied to modern works with a single soloist, such as Arnold Schoenberg's Die glückliche Hand (1924), which besides the protagonist has two additional silent roles as well as a choral prologue and epilogue. Erwartung (1909) and La voix humaine (1959) closely follow the traditional definition, while in Eight Songs for a Mad King (1969) by Peter Maxwell Davies, the instrumentalists are brought to the stage to participate in the action. Twenty-first century examples can be found in Émilie (2008) by Kaija Saariaho and Four Sad Seasons Over Madrid (2008) or God's Sketches (2011) both of them by Jorge Grundman.
In spoken drama
In England the first example of monodrama was on a mythological theme, in this case
Nevertheless, Bangladeshi author Nurul Momen (Nemesis, 1944), Samuel Beckett (Krapp's Last Tape, 1958) and Anton Chekhov (On the Harmful Effects of Tobacco, 1886, 1902), among others, have written monodramas in this sense. Patrick Süskind has one person speak to the audience in Der Kontrabaß (1981). A more recent example is A Night in November (1994) by Irish playwright Marie Jones.
As developed by Russian symbolist Nikolai Evreinov (1879–1953) and encapsulated in his book The Theatre in Life (1927), it is a dramatic representation of what passes in an individual mind. Everything one witnesses on stage is portrayed from the mental state of the given protagonist.
The largest solo theatre festival in the world,
References
- ^ Lucio Tufano, La ricezione italiana del melologo à la Rousseau, in D’un scène à l’autre, Mardaga 2009, p. 134
- ^ Carrie J. Preston, Modernism's Mythic Pose, Oxford University 2011, note 18, p. 262
- ^ George Taylor, The French Revolution and the London Stage, Cambridge University 2000, pp. 110–112
- ^ Christopher Ricks, Tennyson: a selected edition, Routledge 2014, p.512
- ^ "Eclogues and Monodramas" (1864) by William Lancaster, via forgottenbooks.com
- ^ Carey Purcell (3 October 2013). "United Solo Theatre Festival, Featuring Mina Samuels and Zara Phillips, Begins Oct. 3". Playbill. Retrieved 5 October 2023.
- ^ "Thespis International Monodrama Festival". Archived from the original on 3 November 2010. Retrieved 18 May 2007.
