By Ernest Kearney — Will Eno’s Thom Pain (Based on Nothing) began as a one-man show performed at the 2004 Edinburgh Fringe and from there went on to performances in London and New York and eventually arrived on the short list for the Pulitzer Prize.
It has been called one of the best monologues ever written, and it very well might be. Though a monologue about what exactly is hard to say. But what one can say is that it is a dazzling display of English word play. Puns, non-sequiturs, double entendres, cavorting catachreses, jarring juxtapositions, elevated enallages, a deluge of decoying assumptions, a slew of spoonerisms all pressed into play as one-liners, proverbs or perhaps both, constantly dangling between profundity and absurdity.
- “You’re all so wonderful I’d like to take you home, leave you there, and go somewhere else.”
- “We’ve had some laughs too…maybe three.”
- “You’ve changed she said right away the night we met.”
- “Love cankers all.”
- “Important things will happen now.”
It is the verbal equivalent of Lewis Carroll’s rabbit hole.
John Patrick Yoder performs this crashing deconstruction of language with great skill and perfectly dead pan, sensibly allowing the script to do most of the heavy lifting for him.
A GOLD MEDAL
Thom Pain (Based on Nothing)
Is playing During Hollywood Fringe Festival 2022
AT
VENUE:
The Broadwater (Second Stage)
6320 Santa Monica Blvd.
Wednesday June 22 2022, 5:00 PM
Saturday June 25 2022, 12:30 P
For Additional Information and Tickets
www.hollywoodfringe.org/projects/7445
Learn More at johnnypatrickyoder.com
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