When Will Eno’s one-person play Thom Pain opened in New York in February 2005, it became something rare—an unqualified hit, which soon extended through July. Before that, the play was a critical success in London and received the coveted Fringe First Award at the Edinburgh Festival. Dubbed “stand-up existentialism” by The New York Times, it is lyrical and deadpan, both sardonic and sincere. It is Thom Pain—in the camouflage of the common man—fumbling with his heart, squinting into the light.
