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Eno was a Samuel Beckett for the Jon Stewart generation.
I was a college freshman, obsessed with Shakespeare and experimental theater and Peter Barnes.
And now Im frustrated.
As audience members we might have thoughts about the new productions (Whos directing?
Whos playing this well-known role now?
Theyre worth revisiting in the first place because weve decided that they belong to the modern theatrical canon.
But under its breath it says, Im pretty sure your experience of the world is just like mine.
Its heart is still about three sizes too small and its ego is bigger than it thinks.
The pleasure of the production is watching Hall in moments of simple, full presence.
Hall, with his square jaw and subcutaneous sense of menace, can do that.
Hes also alive to the space that hes in.
The problem is that whatThom Painwants to be and what the play is are two different things.
But I only know all this because interviews, authors notes, and Wikipedia have told me its so.
What a nice crowd, he says flatly, I see no difference, really.
In a world filled with difference, sickening disheartening difference, I see none.
Between the you and the me.
You all seem so wonderful and I seem so wonderful …
I see no separation …
The thought of you disgusts me so much.
The thought of you doesnt disgust me that much …
I dont care either way.
I do care, either way.
This is the plays continual pattern: Offer and withhold, venture and retreat, expose and conceal.
Youre free, at least to this little extent, yes?
Theres a curt, almost nasty streak to the text.
Its one thing to know it exists and another to build that difference into the fabric of your play.
hey say instead… that you saw someone who was trying.
I choose the word with care.
A feeling thing, in a wordy body.
Im not without feeling for their efforts, but Im also not without feelings about their methods.
Yet his endless cycle of reaching and running starts to feel self-defeating in ways that go past intention.
Perhaps Ive known too many men like Thom, men inclined to substitute self-awareness for real emotional labor.
Thom Pain (based on nothing)is at the Signature Theatre Company through December 9.
