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Luke Mullins as Thom Pain ... an enigma in designer suit and glasses.

POSTED: 07 AUGUST 2009

Thom Pain (based on nothing), by Will Eno

(B Sharp & Arts Radar | Belvoir Street Theatre, Surry Hills, Sydney | Until 16 Aug)

A photocopied announcement placed at the entrance to Belvoir Downstairs informs the audience that there is an extended blackout as part of Will Eno’s Thom Pain (based on nothing), so please don’t leave.

No worries there. As the dense blackness descends, it’s impossible to even see your hand in front of your face, let alone negotiate your way out. Then, for a split second, the flare of a match, and darkness again.

“How wonderful to see you all,” drawls Pain.

It’s a brilliant start to an 80-minute roller-coaster ride through Pain’s psyche — an unnerving, hilarious and sometimes poignant mash of existential angst, lost love, sardonic observations and childhood reminiscence.

One minute a sympathetic, charismatic personality, the next a volatile and cutting brute, Pain (Luke Mullins) is an enigma in designer suit and glasses.

Mullins is without doubt one of Australia’s finest stage actors (The War of the Roses, The Duel, Gallipoli). In this basically perfect production directed by Sam Strong, Mullins lays bare Pain’s character with precise timing (both comic and tragic), disconcerting honesty and what appears to be genuine anguish.

What’s more, Pain doesn’t intend to suffer alone. He places his audience right in the firing line, both through his convoluted revelations of common experiences — the loss of childhood innocence, a broken heart — and by directly confronting, including and flattering his onlookers.

As Mullins’ piercing, often superior gaze roams the audience — and, alarmingly, the house lights come up — everyone seems to freeze, desperate not to draw his attention. The couple of times our eyes met, I had the distinct feeling he could see right into my head, so apt were his words. I’m sure I wasn’t alone in this reaction.

Eno’s writing sets up scenes of startlingly vivid imagery that Mullins delivers with devastating impact. A description of a young boy in a cowboy suit, playing in a puddle with a stick, builds to a vision of the stick as a violin bow, the boy a virtuoso poised to commence his opus … “Now go fuck yourselves,” Pain spits.

Intermingled with Pain’s recollections are beautifully absurd moments — magic tricks that go nowhere, a spurious raffle, a fruitless search for a candleholder.

A minimalist set by Claude Marcos, Kelly Ryan’s evocative composition, and innovative lighting design (Danny Pettingill) complement the production.

Strong describes Thom Pain as a unique experience that invites the audience to “feel free to feel anything”. Just don’t feel regret ... get your ticket now.