Singular Voices: Plays in Monologue Form

Ian C. Nelson is assistant director of libraries at the University of
Saskatchewan and président, La Troupe du Jour, Regina Summer Stage.

This anthology of plays in monologue form is welcome. There are now
plenty of anthologies of monologues selected from full-length theatre
pieces for study or for audition. But here we have half a dozen highly
varied theatrical pieces that are complete in themselves, and might well
serve as Canadian sources for study or audition selections. The pieces
smack of the gutsy subject matter of Fringe works. That only one was
actually created expressly for a Fringe presentation speaks well for the
health and vigor of our regional theatres. The subject matter of the six
pieces ranges from the philosophy of painting and the nature of audience
to the inner life of a Native girl and of a platform of women in the sex
industry. The style varies from pure one-voice monologue to the
assumption of many characters by a single performer. The theatrical
format ranges from the hallucinatory to a staged lecture (the latter a
disquieting review of the history of Israel and Zionism). As might be
expected, the pieces also vary in skill and maturity. By far the most
polished is Morris Panych’s The Story of a Sinking Man, which is worth
the price of the book by itself. The volume includes production stills,
a biography of each playwright, as well as an introduction and
production history for each piece.