www.thewrap.com: Gabriel Byrne is on Broadway, bringing his memoir “Walking With Ghosts” to live audiences, while comedian Mike Birbiglia will perform his latest monologue “The Old Man and the Pool” at Lincoln Center later this month. Not to be outdone, Jefferson Mays will soon open a revival of “The Christmas Carol” — playing all 50 parts himself!
5 comments:
One person shows have the potential to be so powerful and transformative. I have only seen two; the first was live and in person when Orlando Shakes’ production of “Every Brilliant Thing” came to my school, so we got to witness that in a thrust setup on our own high school stage. The other one was a recording of “Prima Facie” with Jodie Comer, which I was able to see in a movie theater when there were limited showings. That was probably one of my favorite pieces I’ve ever seen. I don’t think it would’ve been as uniquely powerful and thought-provoking if there had been a full cast of actors. It takes an immense amount of stamina and stage presence to carry a show on your own. Comer was energetic, engaging, and truly connected to the piece from start to finish, so that you really felt her character’s joy in the legal profession and later anguish and confusion following her sexual assault, eventually culminating in a desperate tirade drawing in the audience. It had really exciting tech elements as well, including rain onstage, which only added to the piece. I wish I could’ve seen it live.
I have only seen one one-person show about A Night with C.S Lewis and I was enthralled. I think that it takes a certain level of talent and commitment to be able to take on something like that. It makes sense that they are booming right now. Way cheaper that hiring more people and usually to production costs are significantly lower. I do wonder how well performers who take on these roles are compensated. It seems like it could possibly be a slightly lonely venture. But I also know sometimes these productions are slightly more intimate and there can be more of an opportunity to connect with the audience. I think that it’s awesome that Audible is making an initiative to make theatre accessible in this way. It is kind of like moving to Radio Shows from the past. I think that it is interesting and beautiful and I’m going to be looking into that.
I thought this was a really interesting look at the reasons for a one-person show. The first point about it being much cheaper to produce was immediately what my brain went to. That, along with the pandemic related challenges seem like good enough reasons as any to lean into one-person shows. With less people, there is less covid risk; and it doesn't take nearly the rehearsal room team to organize and keep safe. The piece about translating these shows to audiobook or podcast is something I hadn't considered but makes perfect sense. I've seen that pipeline in real time with actors and comedians before. I enjoyed hearing the actors' perspective too. I feel like my first thought when hearing about a one-person show is how impressed I am with one person being able to pull that off. And to do it well is a masterpiece. I've always been attracted to the power of one-on-one storytelling and I'm glad this is having a resurgence.
One of the best pieces of theater I’ve seen was a couple weeks ago at the Byham. The traveling show which has held well over 200 performances was a chronicled life of the blue comedian Lenny Bruce. The show was phenomenal and although this article doesn’t talk about it, my theory is that one-person shows can be easier because we’re much more willing as audience members to suspend our disbelief. I may be shooting myself in the foot, but it seems to me that the more realistic you make the scenery and world, the less forgiving the audience will be of imperfections. One person shows have minimal scenery, minimal props, and minimal costumes - so they are more reliant on the actor to show the change in time and place. Fundamentally, it doesn’ really matter. In the Lenny Bruce show, the location had absolutely no bearing on the plot so both the actor and audience ignored it.
I’m all for one person shows, and the potential their stories can bring. Plus they’re useful in that they cost less for companies to put on, since they are not paying for an immense number of people. I wonder how much money was put into the different productions, and whether the companies were actually able to save money. Or were they unable to recoup the cost of the productions because people are hesitant to see one person shows. I will say Madeline Sayet’s production of Where We Belong isn’t just a one person show, she also wrote it. It is about her identity of self and how show lost herself when she was working on her PhD in the UK. It’s also been making rounds around the US for the past few months. Also, they spelt her name wrong at one point in the article, but it seems it wasn’t the only typo in the article (they Williamstown wrong, too). Madeline Sayet is a friend, and someone I adore immensely.
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