A Filmmaker's Guide to: Monodrama

In this chapter of ‘the filmmaker’s guide’ we’re actually going to be learning about literature and film together. I understand that many of you are sitting in university during difficult times and finding it increasingly hard to study and I understand that many of you who are not at university or not planning on it are possibly stuck of what to do, need a break or even need to catch up on learning film before you get to the next level. This guide will be brief but will also contain: new vocabulary, concepts and theories, films to watch and we will be exploring something taboo until now in the ‘filmmaker’s guide’ - academia (abyss opens). Each article will explore a different concept of film, philosophy, literature or bibliography/filmography etc. in order to give you something new to learn each time we see each other. You can use some of the words amongst family and friends to sound clever or you can get back to me (email in bio) and tell me how you’re doing. So, strap in and prepare for the filmmaker’s guide to film studies because it is going to be one wild ride.

Monodrama

What is it?

Sometimes called a 'one-man play' or a 'one-man narrative', this is a form of literature/film that only contains one character. Normally, this is very difficult to write and honestly, this was very difficult to research for because of the limited information that is out there. But the term MONO meaning 'one' and DRAMA meaning obviously, a piece of acting, shows us that there should only be one character in the piece.

Samuel Beckett is possibly the best example on this with his one-act monodrama play Krapp's Last Tape. It's about a man sitting in his room with a tape recorder and actually, though I am not a big fan of Samuel Beckett, I think that this was extremely clever and I admire the intelligence in it and the work that went into creating something that was both a monodrama and something incredibly interesting.

The book "A Night in November" by Marie Jones is another monodrama that is fairly popular and is set in Belfast. It revolves around football (soccer to you Americans) if I remember correctly in the 1990s. It is a brilliant monodrama and honestly, when it comes to monodramas, Irish Playwrights are really at the forefront if you want to do more research into it.

What about in film?

In film, monodrama is far more difficult to come across. Films such as "Locke" (2013) in which British Actor Tom Hardy (Inception, The Dark Knight Rises and even films that are not directed by Christopher Nolan) and the film "Give 'em Hell, Harry" (1975) which is based on the play of the same name and honestly, this was mostly historical content but it was also very, very interesting. The great thing about a monodrama is that it pushes the actor to their limits and really, I love watching these small finds and seeing how the actor falls into the role.

Possibly though, my favourite film that is a monodrama is the film "Buried" (2010) which is a Spanish-American film starring Ryan Reynolds (Deadpool and Amityville Horror). I am super happy that monodrama is making a resurgence though and it seems to me that actors are now trying to come out of their comfort zone by making these monodramas and "Buried" (2010) is actually set in one small space, specifically a casket buried under the ground in which the main character cannot get out and only has a certain amount of oxygen.

The resurgence of monodrama is also because of the low-budget films becoming more popular again. Look at it this way: you only have to pay one actor, the space is normally either small or there are only a couple of scenes that are different in set and honestly, though they are cheap they are more difficult to make because they do not follow the regular structure of a film. You are relying entirely on the director and actor to do their jobs as best as they possibly can.

Let's take a look at some further reading on the topic

Further Reading:

• Beckett, S (2009). Krapp's Last Tape and Other Shorter Plays. USA: Faber and Faber.
• Evreinov, N (2013). The Theatre in Life. USA: Martino Fine Books
• Jones, M (1994). A Night in November. Ireland: New Island Plays.
• Tennyson, A (2009). The Major Works. UK: Oxford World's Classics