Like a lump of tired gray fat, Thom Pain's conscience stands exposed on the stage in front of us. Through turns alternately horrifying and funny, its owner takes us on an excruciating trip down a memory lane strewn with broken hearts and dreams, a life reeking of loss and missed chances and dead ends.
The raw honesty is what puts it across. Thom Pain (based on nothing) is one long monologue by playwright Will Eno, performed by theatre veteran David Lee. I wanted to say â┚¬Å”performed effortlesslyâ┚¬Â by David Lee, but that would have to apply to this actor's excellent stagecraft alone; the effort of reading such raw emotion aloud must be Herculean. At times I felt my throat catch as Lee's eyes glistened with the proverbial dew of unshed tears; and then he would scream, or joke. You laugh– and then you're stunned into cold, breathless silence. His dark jacket, slacks, skinny tie and white shirt, topped off by a regular guy haircut and comfortable eyeglasses, should be comforting to look at, but through subtle yet desperately earnest body language, Thom Pain is hauntingly rendered by Lee as a frighteningly lost soul.
Thom Pain is befuddled and witty; childlike and adult; learned and tabula rasa. Clever word play in the script rams into your concentration and causes you to veer sharply left, or right, just like Thom. At times he engages in audience participation, forays into the land of the living, but Thom can't quite connect, not even with a patron he brings to sit in a chair on the stage. In Thom’s hands, a seemingly innocent chair, something that should evoke home, brings to mind instead something lethal hooked up deep inside a prison.
He ends his hour with dire warnings– break out and live!– and the scenic background suddenly makes sense: it's a cold blue sky set above a black, barren landscape: no stars, no details. Just a vacuum. And it's here that Thom knocks against the cold steel walls of his brain, and it's terrifying.
Show: THOM PAIN (based on nothing)
Theatre Group: the ubiquitous theater company, Orlando
Venue: Yellow
Remaining Performances
Wed. May 25 9:10 PM
Thu. May 26 9:30 PM
Sat. May 28 1:40 PM
