monodrama

A Melodrama for one character. The term was also used by Schoenberg for his Erwartung (1909).

monodrama, a play or dramatic scene in which only one character speaks; or a sequence of dramatic monologues all spoken by the same single character. The second sense is rarely used, except of Tennyson's Maud (1855), to which the author attached the subtitle A Monodrama in1875. In the first sense, some German playwrights of the late 18th century wrote monodramas that had musical accompaniment, notably J.C. Brandes's Ariadne auf Naxos (1774). Modern writers of monodramas include Samuel Beckett in Krapp's Last Tape (1958) and Alan Bennett, who has written several monodramas for television. See also monologue.