'Thom Pain' at Rep Stage: Absurdist Polarization

SHOW INFORMATION: Through April 13.  Weds – Thur at 7:30PM, Fri – Sat at 8PM, Sat – Sun at 2:30PM.  Tickets: $15 - $25, students $12 all performances, with ID.  More Information: 410-772-4900 or www.repstage.org. 

◊out of five.  90 minutes, no intermission.  Adult language, themes.

 

Whenever the director of a show give a pre-curtain speech that includes a smug grin and the words "this will polarize audiences.  Actually it already has," and I am at the second preview, I am immediately on guard.  Will this be a political play?  Will this be a difficult piece to understand?  In this case, Thom Pain (based on nothing) by Will Eno is polarizing to me because a non-traditional piece that is incredibly self-serving as an "anti-play" play is not just absurdist, it is one of those rare times where a free ticket cost me too much. 

I always love when a modern work revels in its own cleverness, because 99.99% of the time it isn't clever or even chuckle-worthy.  In trying so hard to be purposely obscure, so purposely unconventional, this piece achieves two things, really. One, it reminds us that obscure meaning is only worthwhile if digging after it results in a revelatory truth; this work doesn't come close.  And two, it isn't nearly as unconventional as it thinks it is.  There is a beginning, middle and an end (thank God); it is just told in stream-of-consciousness, so the facts aren't doled out in order.  Hardly original.  It uses lighting and props and sound (excellently, I might add, designed by Harold F. Burgess II, Andrea Moore and Chas Marsh, respectively) to create mood, time and place.  And finally, while literally the entire black box space is utilized as playing space, there is still a primary staging area, an actor, an audience, and even a curtain call. 

Directed by Lee Mikeska Gardner (a brilliant actress), I am sure there are all kinds of poignantly stage moments and all kinds of symbolic meaning is here in mass quantities.  Another trait of the Eno's work is that it works so hard at being nonlinear and self-congratulatory that most audience members don't care enough to work at it.  So, despite what I am sure was meticulously planned chaos by Ms. Gardner, the majority of past, present and future RepStage patrons will simply lose interest in what is really a mess.  Is it the work?  Is it the direction?  Does anyone care? 

Because a great deal of the play is done with the house lights up, so we can see each other, another stab at "anti-play" playing, I'm guessing it is more than fair to critique us as well as the actor I'll be getting to shortly.  First, there were 23 of us, including the director (who was feverishly taking notes).  I was seated in a "prime viewing location" the house manager told me, and as such I could see it all… I'd divide us into three groups.  There were a few of us with looks of almost painful concentration on our faces, me because it's a requirement of the job, and the rest because it is good manners.  Then there were the people who were awake and clearly unengaged in the proceedings.  At one point, the actor, directly addressing one such young lady plowed on valiantly as she visibly hardened and gave a look that dared him to get any closer in her personal space.  The third group, which transcended age by the way, was sound asleep.  Unabashedly, heads down, chin to chest, softly snoring asleep.  Is this polarizing? 

The sole reason to see this piece (and I'd still have to think about it, to be honest) is the actor playing Thom Pain, Timothy Andrés Pabon.  Mr. Pabon has pretty much grown up in front of local audiences over the past two or three seasons, and has shown incredible range.  I have always found him thoroughly engaging, endlessly interesting and fully committed to each role he plays, regardless of size.  He is nothing, if not committed here.  A lot of actors might balk at a patron literally running out of the theatre, and having to by the "non-convention" of the piece, chase him out, screaming obscenities, including one ugly slang term for female genitalia.  Of course, it is entirely possible that that was one of a few stage-y stunts that this "anti-play" play employs, but it happened early on, so I was still willing to believe this was spontaneous.  Mr. Pabon does well, most of the time, conveying a spontaneous edge to what is really carefully rehearsed but needs to seem like it is coming out of his mouth as he is thinking it.  There are a few times when his actor instincts betray the author's intent, but you can't blame him.  Once, during a lengthy list of garbage speak that Mr. Pabon appears to be vomiting out (I'm not kidding), the ideas seem just a wee bit too out of order and the images are just a touch too specific and graphic to believe that they weren't carefully laid out on the page.  Still, overall, I give the guy credit.  If I had to watch my audience sleep or stare blankly at me for 90 minutes, I'd fake memory loss, skip to the last line and pray the lighting people would turn off the lights.  And I appreciate his "whole being" stylistic approach – he must be exhausted at the end. 

From the start, we know that one of the evening's themes is "fear."  Pain reads us the dictionary definition in total darkness.  There was, in fact, one point in the show where the fear was palpable, at least to those of us awake.  That happened when Mr. Pabon called for the house lights to come up, as he would be looking for volunteers.  There were likely several reasons for fear at that moment: If I get picked will I have to act like I understand?  Does he know I slept through most of the play?  What if I have to tell him what I think of this play?  Those thoughts and more were fearfully above the heads of all of us in thought bubbles.  So, for about three minutes, the play worked.  Yes, I got what Thom Pain was saying, what it was about, etc.  But the truth is I really didn't care.  Call me polarized.

 

PHOTOS: Courtesy of RepStage by Stan Barouh.  Timothy Andrés Pabon as Thom Pain.

 

To post a comment, you must register and login.