Off-Broadway Hit Thom Pain Extends to Dec. 31; Smith Joins Cast Sept. 5

By Robert Simonson
August 8, 2005

Will Eno's Thom Pain (based on nothing), the existential comedy that has become one of the more surprising Off-Broadway hits in years, has extended yet again, this time until Dec. 31.

The show was to have ended at the DR2 Theatre on Sept. 4. Previews of the American premiere began Jan. 25 for the solo work, which opened Feb. 1 for a limited run originally scheduled through April 3. The work then extended to July 3 following positive critical response.

Star James Urbaniak will leave the title role on Sept. 4, to be replaced by T. Ryder Smith on Sept. 5. Smith is remembered for his performance in another long-running, offbeat, solo show, Underneath the Lintel, for which he won a Drama Desk nomination.

Thom Pain (based on nothing) is billed as "a wry monologue in which an ordinary man, Thom Pain, muses on childhood, yearning, disappointment and loss, cataloguing the eternal agonies of the human condition as he draws his audience into his last-ditch plea for empathy and enlightenment."

The work debuted in London at the Soho Theatre as a reading, then played with Urbaniak at the Edinburgh Festival, before returning for a limited run at the Soho. Hal Brooks directs the work in the New York run produced Daryl Roth and Bob Boyett.

The show recouped its investment in May.

Eno won Newsday's George Oppenheimer Award as Most Promising Playwright for The Flu Season, which was produced by Rude Mechanicals at the Blue Heron Arts Center. Eno is an Albee protégé whose style has often been compared to that of the elder playwright.

Tickets to Thom Pain (based on nothing) at the DR2 Theatre can be purchased at the box office, 103 East 15th Street, or by calling (212) 239-6200.