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ON THIS MONTH: THEATRE<br />
<strong>Lewes</strong> Festival of Solo Theatre<br />
Curator/writer/actor Jonathan Brown<br />
A solo show, I think,<br />
can be a very accessible<br />
entry-level introduction<br />
to theatre. I<br />
mean, everyone knows<br />
a good comedian can<br />
easily captivate an<br />
audience for a couple<br />
of hours, and it’s no<br />
different when it<br />
comes to drama. Also,<br />
I find that once people<br />
experience one solo show, they become complete<br />
converts to the genre.<br />
Some shows involve the performer playing many<br />
different characters. In Happy Hour, I play 14<br />
named characters, culminating later in portraying<br />
a large crowd and a full-blown pub fight.<br />
There’s no time for changes of costume! It has<br />
to be conveyed by the acting.<br />
That doesn’t mean to say it’s all about the actor.<br />
Yes, a little bit of flair is useful, but that flair<br />
shouldn’t upstage the story. The actor has to<br />
be the mediator between the audience and the<br />
narrative, rather like a Bunraku puppeteer: even<br />
though they’re standing above the puppet, if<br />
they do it well, they become invisible.<br />
The audience will not be expected to get up on<br />
the stage – with perhaps one exception, anyway<br />
– but using their imagination to fill in the gaps<br />
in the narrative enables an internal type of<br />
audience participation, a much more rewarding<br />
experience than being spoon-fed everything.<br />
The more they get involved, the more they own<br />
the performance. It’s democratic theatre.<br />
A solo show is a very intimate experience,<br />
especially in a small venue like the <strong>Lewes</strong> New<br />
School hall. The seats, set out in a ‘thrust’ formation,<br />
will be no more<br />
than three rows deep,<br />
creating a connection<br />
between the performer<br />
and every member of the<br />
audience. The performer<br />
speaks to, and responds<br />
to, the audience far more<br />
than in a multi-actor show,<br />
thus breaking down the<br />
fourth wall.<br />
This festival gives audiences<br />
the chance to sample up to 17 shows over<br />
a single weekend, featuring 14 different performers.<br />
I’m performing four of them, and there<br />
are several well-established, award-winning<br />
shows, by the likes of Kate Darach, Pip Utton,<br />
Daniel Finlay and Ross Gurney-Randall. The<br />
rest are by the very best actors who have come<br />
out of the ‘Grow Your Own Solo Show’ course<br />
that I’ve been teaching in London and <strong>Lewes</strong> for<br />
seven years.<br />
People ask me how I can keep all the lines in my<br />
head for so many shows. Well one of my performances<br />
is entirely improvised, so that solves that<br />
one! The others are shows I’ve done before, and<br />
remembering the lines is like remembering the<br />
words to a song, albeit a very long song.<br />
People tell me they’re surprised, after a show,<br />
when only one person takes a bow, as they feel<br />
they’ve been watching a host of characters. Is<br />
it exhausting? It’s a good work-out, you could<br />
say, but after every performance I feel entirely<br />
energised. As told to Alex Leith<br />
<strong>Lewes</strong> New School, Friday 8th <strong>November</strong>-Sunday<br />
10th <strong>November</strong>. Public can buy single tickets,<br />
whole weekend tickets, or anything in between<br />
from somethingunderground.co.uk<br />
Jonathan Brown in Large Print Trash. Photo by Pete Gioconda<br />
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