The range of performances over the assessment period have been large and fantastic. It has been an honest pleasure to see everyone’s own unique performance style come through in each of their pieces which ranged from those of an autobiographical nature, to a true theatrical performance. Although I did not manage to see every solo performance, those which I did have the pleasure of watching were very well crafted and engaging.

At the beginning of the module we had a discussion over what self indulgence was in solo performance, and came to the conclusion that self indulgence was fine and was often encouraged within solo performance. Arrogance on the other hand was not, and often alienated the audience. I can happily say that from the collection of solo performances I saw no-one was arrogant, although some were self-indulgent.
It was those which I enjoyed the most.
Combined with a mixture of voice-overs, music, live singing and often honest elements the solo performances shone in their own right. Although no-one chose to obviously go down the performance art route, the variety on offer was still refreshing, and every performance was different.

(Photo Credit: Lauren Watson, 21.05.14)

Stand-up comedy was popular within our year group, yet each performance was different. Steph’s focussed on more observational comedy, whereas Jake’s came from a more biographical stand point reminiscent of  Gray and Bogosian, especially in relation to his character changes and definitions. Honesty carried through with almost every performance, stand-up or not. Whether it was honesty about themselves or their interests, the pieces which I saw really grasped the audience and made us believe what we were watching because the performer believed in what they were doing.

Taking themselves and presenting them on stage for us to see was often a brave move for some of the performers. Interestingly, almost all the performances had some sort of underscore/musical element to them. Two performances which stood out to me though using this device was Sam Davis’ and Chris Greenhall’s. Both chose popular songs, and re-wrote them with their own lyrics to further their own performances, adding an extra autobiographical, and often moving, element.

(Photo Credit: Lauren Watson, 21.05.14)

Overall, our year group has produced some outstanding pieces of solo performance work, which were “infused with the infectious, raw energy of spontaneous storytelling” (Bonney 2000, p. xiii). Although influenced by varies artists which we were introduced to while studying, they have all evolved into something personal and unique to each individual person.

 Works Cited
Bonney, Jo (2000) ‘Preface’ in Extreme Exposure: an anthology of solo performance texts from the twentieth century, ed. Jo Bonney, New York Theatre Communications: Group 2000.