I'm hard-pressed to think of a contemporary playwright, save for perhaps Adam Rapp, who outright bothers as many people as Will Eno can. His last work, the Pulitzer finalist Thom Pain (based on nothing) produced positively vitriolic back-and-forth on the 'net message boards, which were most inflamed by Charles Isherwood's rave-and-a-half for the production (which may very well haunt him forever.)
For the record - I'm in the camp that adored Thom Pain - it really crept up on me and blew me away. My favorite pull-quote that came from the raves the play received was the one coining Eno "a Samuel Beckett for the Jon Stewart generation" - his work is eminently theatrical, full of its own language, rhythms and landscape, and possessing a wry sensibility that could only exist here and now. Eno is back in action with Oh, the Humanity and other exclamations, an evening of five one-acts playing a limited engagement at The Flea. Succinctly (and adequately) described as "five short plays about people like you, facing lives like yours. About life, in a word", Oh, the Humanity landed another rave from Isherwood. And at yesterday afternoon's matinee, held me rapt for its hour-long running time and left me ultimately quite delighted (and curiously uplifted.)
Oh, the Humanity wryly and winningly takes the aforementioned 'real people' in their real situations and gives voice to their musings on the existential and metaphysical in wonderfully crafted and often very funny scenes and monologues (so don't let the words 'existential' and 'metaphysical' scare you away!) Of the five, all expertly performed by Brian Hutchinson and Marisa Tomei, my favorites were the two monologues - Hutchinson's opener "Behold the Coach, in a Blazer, Uninsured", about a sports coach who's talk to the press about his team's losing season turns into a reflection on his own unfortunate past year, and Tomei's "Enter the Spokeswoman, Gently", featuring an airline spokeswoman doing the best she can to calm families grieving a plane that went down - and having to deviate from her carefully prepared company statement to do so.
Eno is an Albee Foundation Fellow, among other exciting credits, and it's easy to see why - his distinct use of language echoes his predecessors like Albee, and yet, he gives it his own spin entirely. The characters who populate Eno's world struggle to vocalize the emotions and feelings that we all have, and yet so rarely have the opportunity/courage to say. Hutchinson's Coach can't help but blur the line between his team's failures and his own shortcomings. Tomei's Spokeswoman, in between offering the bereaved families free round-trip tickets and assuring them that, in the wake of the disaster, the airline's company picnic has been canceled, does the best she can to find her own distinct words of comfort. Both performers find a perfect balance of humor and pathos.
The other plays are nothing to balk at, either. "Ladies and Gentlemen, the Rain" is a bleakly funny portrait of two people trying to describe themselves for a video dating service; "The Bully Composition" is a nifty little coup de theatre about two photographers taking a picture of the audience; and the titular play, "Oh, the Humanity", tells of a couple struggling to get their car started on the way to an undetermined function at church. The performances are quite strong throughout (though I do agree with Isherwood that Tomei pushed the loneliness slightly too hard in "The Rain"). Hutchinson especially is brilliant and distinct throughout his many different roles. Jim Simpson's terrific direction fluidly creates Eno's world that mixes the everyday and the surreal, without ever getting in the way of the message and letting the playwrights words speak for itself.
The final play, it should be noted, will probably give those turned off by Thom Pain the most consternation, as it's the one that veers hardest into the meta-theatricality which (among other Eno elements) bothered so many people. Yet its final words - and their simplicity - not only felt entirely earned to me, but got to me in a way that only theatre can. We may all be struggling to find the right thing to say and the means to say it in our increasingly uncertain world. It's heartening we have Will Eno to throw us some lines when we're speechless and help us not only to survive life's bleaker moments, but to remember how brutal and beautiful it can truly be as a whole.
Oh, the Humanity and other exclamations is playing at The Flea, 41 White Street, through December 22nd. Running time is approximately 1 hour and 10 minutes, with no intermission. Tickets run $55 weekdays & weekend matinees, $60 Friday and Saturday evenings.
Comments