- OTHER MEDIA
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- San Francisco Examiner April 2, 2009 (Leslie Katz)
- An exhilarating solo exploration of ‘Pain’
By Leslie Katz
- SAN FRANCISCO – Playing a truly one-of-a-kind role in a show in
which his job is to put the audience on edge, Jonathan Bock has his work
cut out for him.
- He succeeds.
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- The actor portrays the title, and sole, character in playwright Will
Eno’s surrealistic award-winning piece “Thom Pain (based on nothing),”
a Cutting Ball Theater production onstage in an extended run in the tiny
Exit on Taylor theater in The City.
- The intimate space is the ideal setting for the unusual, sometimes
funny, sometimes scary, always involving and provocative hour-long performance,
which at times puts the viewer into a zone of discomfort like the kind
in small comedy clubs when the comic decides to single out a patron for
the amusement of all.
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- A hit off-Broadway, “Thom Pain” isn’t a monologue with
a story. It’s Pain, a pleasant-looking fellow in a suit, relating
sort-of connected anecdotes and, more powerfully, making pithy observations
about the empty realities of life.
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- Toward the back of the stage are a chair, table and glass of water,
which the audience keeps thinking will come into play in the show.
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- But Pain stands well in front of the props, just a few feet from the
audience, pointedly directing his spiel, often in an accusing style, and
looking specific individuals directly in the eye.
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- The humor often comes from the disparate juxtapositions, when Pain
begins a thought with a biting philosophical notion and ends with, “On
the other hand, there are some nice shops in the area.”
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- Under sharp direction by Marissa Wolf, Bock achieves perfect tone with
the tough, touchy material. One note off, or a half-step more intense,
he’d have people running for the exits — one person does, in
what had some folks at Saturday’s performance wondering whether or
not it was staged.
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- While the confrontational stance does keep everyone at attention, writer
Eno smartly peppers the script with brief, empathetic comments about love,
heartbreak and not fitting in.
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- Addressing those universal emotions in a fresh, thrillingly obscure
way is how “Thom Pain” really pulls people in.
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