Idiosyncrasy.  Poetry.  Comedy.  Reading.  Cabaret (Bonney, 2000, xi)

Unconventional.

Anti-theatrical.  Immersive.  Authentic.

‘In presenting their personal observations, convictions and fears, [soloists] share an intimacy with their audience, built purely from their live presence and their words’ (Bonney, 2000, xii).

The solo performer is alone on stage.  This is where the audience’s sole attention is directed.  They are the only bodily presence in which the audience can connect and communicate to and from.  The power of words and the ability to communicate things that cannot readily be said immediately shrouds the performer in a veil of personal feelings and emotions that the audience instinctively and intuitively begin to reason if they are autobiographical or not.

It is here however, that questioning around the idea that the ‘solo show expects and demands the active involvement of the people in the audience’ (Bonney, 2000, xiii), comes into play.  Involvement is the key word.  From my introduction into solo performance, I believe the audience has to be involved both consciously and subconsciously to create an internal connection with the performer they see before them on the stage.  This investment into the performance, to an extent, may have a personal resonance with the audience that will encourage both performer and spectator to establish and maintain a connection throughout.  However, involvement also implies that the audience need to be physically present which for me conjures up images of audience involvement as would normally been seen in a theatre for children performance.  If words are the key audience connective, the performance space would be seen as a territory that the audience would recognise but not cross.

To feel without touch.

Reference:

Bonney, J. (2000) Extreme Exposure: An Anthology of Solo Performance Texts from the Twentieth Century. New York: Theatre Communications Group.