Plays for One Performer
Discover fringe-theatre shows turned award-winning TV series, memoir-monologues, writer-actor collaborations and so many more excellent examples of solo shows in our collection below.
If you're a theatre-maker interested in creating your own solo show, there's no better place to start than with Making Your Solo Show: The Compact Guide, by Lisa Carroll and Milly Thomas – both experienced solo-show writers, who teach popular workshops on getting to grips with the form.
Discover 10 top tips to make your solo show memorable, an extract from Lisa and Milly's book over on our blog.
Mongoose
A strange and beguiling monologue about a loner obsessed with a malign companion called Mongoose.
Cold Comfort
A powerful monologue about an Irish labourer living in London who returns home to Belfast to have a last, drunken 'conversation' with his recently dead father.
Brazil
A blistering monologue set in Scotland in the near future, when Europe is at war with America, and Scotland suffers collateral damage in the clash of civilisations.
Jordan
A short play that tells the true story of Shirley Jones, who kills her baby boy, Jordan, rather than have him taken away by his abusive father.
The Lost Art of Keeping a Secret
The alternating stories of two women (played by the same actress), both of whom 'lose' their sons - one murdered, the other a runaway.
Unsuspecting Susan
A monologue play about a middle-aged woman whose adult son has converted to Islam.
Leavings
A short monologue play from the author of Jerusalem.
The Naked Eye
A short monologue play from the author of Jerusalem.
Duologue
Terence Rattigan's Duologue is a short monologue play for a female actor in which a woman reminisces movingly about her dead husband.
Spacewang
A monologue play in which a teenage girl roams the streets of Withernsea in search of aliens.
The Waiting List
A blackly comic monologue about a man under siege in the community where he grew up.
I Won't Dance - Don't Ask Me
An early short monologue play from Northern Irish writer Owen McCafferty.
On the Evils of Tobacco
A bittersweet monologue in which a scientific lecture is hijacked by thoughts of domestic misery.
Room 303
A short monologue inspired by the Third Epistle of John and first produced by the Bush Theatre, London, as part of the Sixty-Six Books season in 2011.
Bird
A cutting-edge monologue that throws light on the experience of a teenager in contemporary Britain, from one of the country's most exciting young playwrights.
Gypsy Girl
A monologue first performed by Laura Lomas at Soho Theatre, London, on 5 October 2009 as part of Paines Plough's LATER programme.
Where I'm From
A monologue play about a woman on the day of her release from prison.
All On Her Own
A powerfully atmospheric one-woman play, All On Her Own tells the story of Rosemary who, alone at midnight in London, has a secret burden to share that is both heartbreaking and sinister.