Alone in the wilderness

Henrietta Bredin finds out what it is that draws actors to the gruelling one-man show

Judi Dench says she’d never do it, Roy Dotrice didn’t do it for 40 years but started again in 2008, Joanna Lumley says that managing to do it while looking at her own reflection in a mirror made her feel afterwards as if she could handle pretty much anything. Let’s do it, it’s the one-man, or one-woman, show.

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Stepping on to a stage or in front of the camera to perform requires a particular brand of courage but how much more focused and intense is that experience if you undergo it entirely on your own? As Michael Pennington says, ‘Let’s not forget it’s one of the most lonely things you can do in our game’ but it is nonetheless something that many actors — given the vicissitudes of their chosen career — find it useful to ‘have in their back pockets’.