Not an Actor, but a Guide
Have you ever witnessed a vast, sprawling story carried to you through the prism of a single person?
One actor becomes many characters; one body holds many times and places. In a solo show, the performer is sometimes a narrator, sometimes you, sometimes me, sometimes all of us.
Solo performance is the form that demands the highest concentration from an actor.
There is no scene partner to exchange lines with, no exit to slip offstage and rest. In a solo show, the actor is both the center of the story and the stage itself.
For actors, it may well be a challenge that breaks every limit they thought they had.
And yet, after watching a truly great solo show, you find yourself wishing more and more actors would take that leap.
Here are four extraordinary solo shows chosen by an editor who loves the form.
1. Sixteen Lives Told Through One Heart — Mend the Living
How far does one person's death reach?
Based on the novel of the same name by French author Maylis de Kerangal, this production follows the journey of Simon's heart — a nineteen-year-old declared brain-dead after a car accident — as it is transplanted into a new body.
Onstage, the actor becomes Simon, then a family member, then a member of the medical team. What the audience encounters through these transformations is not simply a change of roles, but a shift in perspective around a single life. It is a tightly woven work that invites reflection on the value of life, the weight of choice, human dignity, and what we owe one another as members of society.
Mend the Living — Directed by Min Sae-rom, Produced by Project Group Ilda
Since its Korean premiere in 2019, the production has run continuously, completing its fifth season in early 2026. It has been staged at venues including the National Theater of Korea Jeongdong Theater and Dongguk University's Lee Hae-rang Arts Theater.
A roster of widely acclaimed actors has appeared in the production, including Son Sang-gyu, Yoon Na-moo, Kim Sin-rok, and Kim Ji-hyun.
If you have never seen a solo show before, this is the one to start with. The dazzling lighting and soundscape evoking the sea pull you in immediately, and the actor's commanding presence and verbal dexterity keep you completely absorbed from beginning to end. Let's hope the seventh season arrives next year — it's worth the wait.
2. A Drummer, an Actor, and a Beat — On the Beat
One actor. One drum kit.
On the Beat shows what solo performance can be, through this deceptively simple setup — and the energy it generates is unlike anything else.
Adrien is a boy who understands the world through rhythm. The drums are his way of connecting with everything around him, the only language in which he can truly explain himself. When everything about him feels different from everyone else, the drums are the one thing that feels absolute.
The actor playing Adrien performs live to iconic pop tracks, then pivots to monologues you simply cannot look away from.
It is a work that lives on the border between theatre and concert — one where music becomes another language for a character's inner life.
Another solo show from Min Sae-rom, the director behind Mend the Living,
On the Beat premiered in 2022, returned for an encore run in 2023, and was revived again in 2025. It has been performed at venues including TOM Theater and Dongguk University's Lee Hae-rang Arts Theater.
The cast has included Yoon Na-moo, Kang Ki-dung, and Kang Seung-ho.
On the Beat is not your typical monologue play.
It is not a show where one person tells you a story — it is a show where one person generates energy on stage.
A work that shatters the assumption that solo theatre is a quiet, inward genre. On the Beat lays bare one person's entire world in the most electrifying way possible.
3. One Man Holding Chekhov's Universe — Vanya
A classic has to fight against familiarity.
The more a work has been interpreted, the harder it becomes to find a new question inside it.
The National Theatre's Vanya is based on Anton Chekhov's Uncle Vanya.
Actor Andrew Scott plays every single character in the piece.
The conceit of one person playing all the roles is not merely a formal experiment.
If anything, it sharpens the questions about human nature that have always been at the heart of Chekhov.
The person who longs to be loved but is consumed by loneliness,
the person who craves recognition but is met with defeat,
the person who wants change but cannot bring themselves to move.
These distinct characters collide inside a single actor's body.
What this editor found most fascinating was the way Scott moved fluidly across gender and age. Because roles that would ordinarily be distributed among many actors were embodied by one person, the lens through which we see desire and relationship shifted entirely.
Andrew Scott, who has worked across screen and stage throughout his career, never plays these characters as types — he reaches for something essential and then adds something fresh. Could it be that his meticulous study of each character is what transforms figures from a long-canonical classic into people who feel genuinely, presently alive?
Vanya is currently available to watch on National Theatre at Home. (Korean subtitles are not available.)
4. Hey. You There, Looking at Me — Fleabag
An audience is usually made up of witnesses.
But in Fleabag, the audience steps inside the story.
Written and performed by Phoebe Waller-Bridge, Fleabag is a razor-sharp black comedy — strictly for adults.
A dizzying demolition of the fourth wall. The actor speaks directly to the house, shares her own opinions, confesses secrets, and creates moments visible only to the audience.
As an audience member, you feel as though you have become the character's closest friend.
Fleabag generates laughter, but behind it lies loneliness and mistakes — the desire to be loved, and loss.
A character you feel slightly self-conscious admitting you relate to, yet too real to look away from.
That complexity and discomfort is exactly where Fleabag's power lives.
The original Fleabag became a phenomenon in the UK and was later adapted as a series for the BBC, with Phoebe Waller-Bridge reprising the lead role. Andrew Scott appears in Season 2.
The Korean premiere of Fleabag is currently running.
It plays at Doosan Art Center's Yeongang Hall from June 19 through September 6, with Kim Gyu-nam, Kim Ju-yeon, and Kim Hiera in the cast.
I'm curious to see how the sharp humor and female-centered narrative of the original have been localized — your editor hasn't seen it yet!
Stories Only Possible Alone
These four works each demonstrate, in their own way, what solo performance can do.
In Mend the Living, one actor passes through many lives.
In On the Beat, the stage expands through body and music.
In Vanya, one actor holds an entire classic within themselves.
In Fleabag, an honest confession that leaps the wall between performer and audience.
This piece has been a personal selection — four solo shows that left a deep impression on this editor.
The experience of being completely immersed in a world encountered through a single actor made it genuinely difficult to return to ordinary life, even after the curtain came down.
If you're looking for theatre that truly moves you, keep an eye on the solo shows being staged right now.
And if you have a favorite solo show of your own, I'd love it if you shared it with me.
