A monopoly of monologues

For the first time, the Edinburgh Festival Fringe has introduced a category celebrating the Spoken Word.

The pieces do not require much in the way of props or personnel, but they run the gamut from comedy to tragedy, to combinations of the two, and everything in between. But what has prompted this flood of confessional-style performances?

I visited Edinburgh to investigate the trend for monologues. You can listen to the report in the player on the right.