The post-war Theater witnessed the alterations that the whole world underwent in the course of the Second World War. Right after the war, the European theatrical scenes were occupied by the plays of three authors. They are Tennessee Williams with his “Cat on a Hot Tin Roof”, Jean-Paul Sartre with “No Exit”, and Samuel Becket “Waiting for Godot”;
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Modern Theatre comes from the European Renaissance Theatre of the 16th-17th centuries that dates back to the Ancient Greek and Roman Theatre. Its foundation was laid down in England and Italy, especially by the English Renaissance Theatre between in the period between Reformation and theatre closure in 1642;
The beginning of the 19th century was swept by the never-before-seen cultural movement known as Romanticism. One of the first European dramatists who got himself involved in this process was August Schlegel that considered W. Shakespeare the greatest playwright;
One-man show
A certain form of one-man show existed even in Ancient Greece and Rome and was normally associated with stand-up comedy. This type of theatrical performance was usually done by a solo actor (comedian) that addressed the audience. Normally, a comedian told anecdotes, jokes and entertained audience in this way.
Still, by the beginning of the 19th century, one-man show became professional and financially lucrative. It was taken "in the inventory" by repertory companies and underwent a complex transitional and professional changes.
One-man shows obtained a much wider scope. Most of performances were provided with a 'storyline' or a 'plot'. They started to involve people in the audience into theatrical performance, having become more complicated and well-structured.
The 20th century one-man show is not primitive one-hour show full of funny old wive's tales or anecdotes, but well-designed and realized performance that has a good plot and character vignettes that engage a myth.
The most well-known American one-man show performers are Eric Bogosian, Whoopi Goldberg, and Lily Tomlin.
One more popular form of one-man show is sharing stories from personal life or made-up stories. By the way, current humorous speechifications originated from two-millennium old one-man show.