Clever: Thom Pain's Rep Audience

As Brooklynite Will Eno has written the play, we were specifically instructed by it not to call it "clever." So in the spirit of the thing, we've added confusing punctuation. We won't spend much time reviewing it, because the play (being based on nothing) is less important than who can stand it.

A fringe experiment that gestated into an over-praised off-Broadway sensation, Thom Pain (based on nothing) runs at the Rep through November 5. A 70-ish minute, convulsive spasm of a monologue, it's ironically unfunnily-funny (thanks, Jon Stewart), bitterly alienated, and rhapsodical about life's tougher experiences. Tickets are $40 adults / $26 seniors / $10 under-25.

It's strange how context affects theater: over at CHAC, this play would feel right at home. At the Rep, sitting behind an elderly couple who struggled to stand to let latecomers get past them, we had to wonder what they thought of black-suited Todd Jefferson Moore shouting "CUNT!" at a retreating audience member's back.

There are plenty of people out there who will find Eno's ADD, sado-masochistic, my-shitty-life monologue style engaging -- here are some who do. We will confirm that Moore gives a gutsy, committed, mercurial performance. We will further admit that it's the most interactive show we've ever seen at the Rep ("I apologize, I know you hate this kind of thing," says Moore, searching for "volunteers" -- and yes, we're paraphrasing). It even has a MySpace account. But as an introspective "bad break-up" play, as a fitfully communicative attempt (Pain's professed model of communication is that of the herpes virus, leaving a painful sore in his wake), it was too diffident about claiming our interest.

Early on, we fought with our desire to walk out and our curiosity at what kind of trainwreck was coming. It is a wreck, that's the point, an emotional wreck, but it never lets the audience in, really -- you're always discomfited, laughing a bit too loudly from tension. We also didn't like being asked to "imagine" this or that scene -- for god's sake, if we could pull that off reliably, we wouldn't spend money on theater. Still, if you're the type who'd never attend one of the Rep's extravagant costume dramas, this could be your chance. You might also want to go if you're taking anti-depressants, and missing the bite of real misery.