Can 4 solo performances co-exist on stage???

This was the question that has been plaguing me recently. I didn’t know how to bring each performer’s experience together on stage without it becoming jarring and messy to the spectator.
I used to think I would solve this problem with staging; just mess about with the staging in some way so that each performer is in their self-contained space, never interacting with the other performers. I came up with a million complicated staging ideas with this in mind.

This is now a terrible idea to me!

Each performer will follow their own unique journey, but bridges and cross-overs between have already become apparent and should be recognised and built upon. What I as director need to do now is create a structure to the piece from which the performers can improvise on the night – integrating and juxtaposing those moments of solitude with those including the other performers, moments of tension with moments of release, moments of connectedness with fragmentary moments, playing with the dynamics, shapes and tensions of the action etc. etc…to make something (hopefully) beautiful which the performers can play with and within.