Thom Pain (Based on Nothing)

1. Thom Pain (Based on
Nothing)
By Will Eno

2. What is it about?
 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WOC66s_R01M
 “A surreal but touching exploration of death, rejection, love and fear” (The
Print Room, 2012)
 “…the character before us is not the kind of guy who gets things right the
first time, or even the second” (N.Y. Times, 2005)
 “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” (N.Y. Times, 2005)

3. Staging
 Simple set
 Man in a black suit
 “…every step, smile, and hand gesture is made with a
purpose.” (The Austin Chronicle, 2007)

4. Structure and Style
 The New York Times: “…a Samuel Beckett for the Jon Stewart
generation.“ (Graham, 2014)
 “Standup-style comic riffs and deadpan hipster banter keep interrupting
a corrosively bleak narrative” (N.Y. Times, 2005)
 “…continually being spliced into fourth-wall-breaking bits of business and
tongue-in-cheek forays into cheesy showbiz hucksterism” (N.Y Times,
2005)
 “…we are never allowed to forget we are an audience” (Agg, 2012)

5. What makes it Solo Performance?
 It is a piece based solely around one man and his life stories/
perceptions/ thoughts – is perceived as a personal exploration
 It reacts with the audience
 Its structure offers shifts in mood/ tone
 He is on stage on his own

6. Works Cited.
 Agg, J. (2012) Thom Pain (Based on Nothing)***** PlaystoSee. Available
from http://playstosee.com/page.php?sad=play&id=853 [Accessed 5
February 2014].
 Graham, E. (2013) Thom Pain (Based on Nothing) at Hyde Park Theatre.
[online] Vimeo. Available from http://vimeo.com/69805900 [Accessed 5
February 2014].
 Isherwood, C. (2005) Life’s a Gift? Quick. Exchange it. [online] The New York
Times. Available from http://www.nytimes.com/theater/show/7845/ThomPain-based-on-nothing-/overview [Accessed 5 February 2014].
 The Print Room (2012) Thom Pain (Based on Nothing). [online] Available
from http://www.the-print-room.org/page44.htm [Accessed 5 February
2014].