Monodrama

Monodrama, in principle a drama in which only one speaking character (as distinct from a chorus) appears, as in early Greek drama. In German literature it is usually taken to refer to a play, or a part of a play, in which a single voice speaks against a background of music. Its starting-point was J.-J. Rousseau's scène lyrique Pygmalion (performed 1772-3 in Weimar); and Ariadne auf Naxos (1774) by J. C. Brandes is usually quoted as the first German example. Other instances are the end of Goethe's Egmont and Johanna's extended monologue in Act IV of Schiller's Die Jungfrau von Orleans. The use of monologue in the unfinished play Catharina von Siena by J. M. R. Lenz is also related to mono-drama. A 20th-c. example is Ostpolzug by A. Bronnen (1925). See also Melodrama.