Diseuse

A monologist (/mɒnɒlədʒɪst/), or interchangeably monologuist (/mɒnɒləgɪst/), is a solo artist who recites or gives dramatic readings from a monologue, soliloquy, poetry, or work of literature for the entertainment of an audience. The term can also apply (often disparagingly) to one who dominates a conversation, or to a bird with a repeating monotonous cry.

A dramatic monologist is a term sometimes applied to an actor performing in a monodrama often with accompaniment of music. In a monodrama the lone player relays a story through the eyes of a central character, though at times may take on additional roles. In the modern era the more successful practitioners of this art have been actresses frequently referred to by the French term “diseuse”.

Diseuse (pronounced dee-zœz), French for "teller", also called talkers, storytellers, dramatic-singers or dramatic-talkers, is a term, at least on the English-speaking stage, that appears to date back only to the last decade of the 19th century. The early uses of “diseuse” as a theatrical term in the American press seem to coincide with Yvette Guilbert’s tour of New York City in the mid-1890s.Cosmopolitan Magazine in a February, 1896 article on Guilbert described the term as a "newly-coined and specific title". Diseuse is the feminine form of the French word diseur "teller", a derivative of dire "to say, to tell", which in turn came from Latin dīcere. It would appear that over the last century or so few male actors became noteworthy performing solely as a dramatic monologist, though many well known actors have played in monodramas over their careers.

The publication Theatre World wrote in a 1949 piece, “In our time we have fallen under the spell of three remarkable women practising the art of the diseuse — Ruth Draper, Cornelia Otis Skinner, and Joyce Grenfell. Each of these great artists has the gift of crowding the stage with imaginary figures who become so vivid as to be practically visible, but as all of these artists happen to be members of the fair sex it could be assumed that they possess a magic denied the mere male of the theatre.” The article goes on to suggest that Sid Fields was an actor of comparable talents.

...
Wikipedia