Thom Pain (Based on Nothing) [Revised Tcg Edition] - by Will Eno (Paperback)

Number of Pages: 128
Genre: Drama
Sub-Genre: American
Format: Paperback
Publisher: Theatre Communications Group
Age Range: Adult
Book theme: General
Author: Will Eno
Language: English

About the Book

A revised edition of Will Eno's surreal and meditative one-man show.

Book Synopsis

"It's sad, isn't it? The dead horse of a life we beat, all the wilder, all the harder the deader it gets. On the other hand, there are some nice shops in the area."

Thom Pain has come to a certain point in his life. Maybe you have too. His entire existence is ordinary; but that ordinariness is a revelation and a wonder and a curiosity. To him at least. He'd better hope so. It's all he has (except maybe a dictionary and an old love letter).

Comic and disturbing, this provocative monologue charts one man's anguished journey from shattered childhood dreams and trauma to the tenuous, if guarded, optimism of adulthood, told in dangerous intimacy by a voice loaded with wry humor and deceptive charm.

Review Quotes

Astonishing in its impact. . . One of the treasured nights in the theatre that can leave you both breathless with exhilaration and, depending on your sensitivity to meditations on the bleak and beautiful mysteries of human experience, in a puddle of tears. . . Thom Pain is at bottom a surreal meditation on the empty promises life makes, the way experience never lives up to the weird and awesome fact of being. But it is also, in its odd, bewitching beauty, an affirmation of life's worth.-- "New York Times"

Bold, original, and most important of all, entertaining without sacrificing its artistic leanings, Thom Pain is the work of a writer finding his voice.-- "Chicago Theatre Review"

Eno has emerged as one of the most original young playwrights on the scene. He is one of the few writers who can convert discomfort and outright agony into such pleasure.--David Cote "Time Out New York"

It's hard to imagine more dazzling writing on any stage.-- "Daily Telegraph (London)"

Will Eno is an original, a maverick wordsmith whose weird, wry dramas gurgle with the grim humour and pain of life. Eno specialises in the connections of the unconnected, the apologetic murmurings of the disengaged, those who have suppressed their humanity to survive.-- "Guardian"

About the Author

Will Eno's most recent plays include Wakey, Wakey (Signature Theatre, New York, 2017), The Open House (Signature Theatre, New York, 2014; Obie Award, Lucille Lortel Award for Best Play) and The Realistic Joneses (Yale Repertory Theatre, New Haven, 2012; Broadway, 2014). His play Middletown received the Horton Foote Prize and Thom Pain (based on nothing) was a finalist for the 2005 Pulitzer Prize. Mr. Eno lives in Brooklyn.