One of the topics that came up after the sneek preview on press night was the history of solo shows. In a previous post, I wrote that Hal Holbrook was the Godfather of One-Man Shows and this stirred a bit of conversation. According to Solo Performers: An International Registry, solo shows date back to 1703 in Richmond, Virginia, where Anthony Aston (a soldier in the British Army) presented “Medley,” which consisted of re-enacted bits and pieces of plays he’d seen. It was so successful that he quit the army and moved back to the UK to tour to embark on a successful career as a solo performer. Surely, there are historical traditions in various cultures that date storytelling back to way beyond that, but this is the first recorded evidence of a show that defined, more or less, what a solo show is today.
The Victorian period was also known as the “Speaker Era,” where lecturers and speakers became actors in their own presentations. Leland Powers toured the U.S. performing works from Sheridan and Benjamin Chaplin performed a four-scene monologue as Abraham Lincoln. Charles Dickens was the best speaker of his time, presenting his works in a dramatic reading form to critics who said he had “a whole company of players within him.”
More modern solo shows began in Britain with Emlyn Williams (a Welshman) in 1959 although Sir John Gielgud was doing his Ages of Man, a Shakespeare-based solo performance. The author of the abovementioned book states, “If Emlyn Williams set the example, Hal Holbrook set the trend.” Vincent Price then began performing as Oscar Wilde, James Earl Jones as Paul Robeson, Henry Fonda as Clarence Darrow, and James Whitmore as Will Rogers.
Spalding Gray, called a “New Wave Mark Twain,” always insisted that he was an “oral historian” or an “autobiographer” rather than an actor. He brought audiences into every minute detail of his life, even encouraging audience members to join in during the performance. Julie Harris perfomed William Luce’s The Belle of Amherst, showing the life of Emily Dickenson. Rowan Aktinson has created Mr. Bean but confines him to the TV screen. Ian McKellen enjoyed a great deal of success with his solo show Acting Shakespeare, which gave audiences a tour of the Bard.
In 300 years, the One-Man Show has come a long way in becoming the One-Person Play…
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