Collaborating and Confronting the Able-Bodied Gaze in Herein Lies the Truth

HowlRound Theatre Commons: The worlds of stand-up, monologue, and theatre have been circling and overlapping for a good while now, from Brother Theodore’s “stand-up tragedy” in the 1960s to Spalding Gray’s academic personal monologues to successful on and off-Broadway runs of pieces by standup comics Alex Edelman, Hannah Gadsby, and Ikechukwu Ufomadu. These pieces take the notion of theatre as a mode for intimate storytelling seriously, incorporating full design elements and honing the story via dramaturgical contributions and theatrical direction. However, these performances are frequently static affairs, with performers seated at desks and tables or in a setting serving as a simulacrum of a comedy club, with a stool and a microphone stand.