Thom Pain (based on nothing)

It’s hard not to admire Julie Baz and David Jeffrey, the co-artistic directors of the Sydney Independent Theatre Company. Putting on a one-man play, with Baz directing Jeffrey in the lead and – from what I could tell – not much extra help, must be a lot of work. It’s people like this who keep a lot of interesting theatre happening in this country. They give us access to a whole range of plays we’d never see otherwise.

This return season of Will Eno’s unique monologue play Thom Pain (based on nothing) has replaced a planned production of John Guare’s Six Degrees of Separation. I admit I was disappointed, as I’ve longed to see Six Degrees on stage because the film is so impressive.

But Thom Pain is clearly an interesting man – and an interesting play. Running just over an hour, it’s indeed a work based on nothing, other than observations, a bit of wit and the neurotic obsessions of one man, who likes to speak directly to his audience and bring them into his weird little world. Thus he reveals a fair bit about their weird little worlds too.

This work has been compared to stand-up comedy, although the humour is often dark and it certainly doesn’t have us rolling in the aisles. It is very punchily written, though, and has remarkable moments of insight: for example, when this man is talking about his younger self and the death of his childhood best friend – a dog. His love for the animal is unquestioned; if only his later love for his girlfriend was quite so complete.

A much bigger shame, however, is the lack of subtlety to Jeffrey’s performance. His diction is brilliant and his enthusiasm unbounding. But it’s too much so – that enthusiasm becomes relentless, the delivery sing-song and the audience struggles to stay engaged. It needs some quieter moments, some shade as well as all the non-stop bright light.

If only his performance had included as much contrast as his lighting design (Jeffrey designed the set and lights; Baz the costume and sound). The designs follow Eno’s directions to be as sparse as possible so that no attention is taken away from the performance. But without any distractions, the acting needs to be first class to keep the audience engaged. And in that, this production falls short.

Peter Gotting

Image: Thom Pain (David Jeffrey) photo by Katy Green Loughrey