Will Eno - Title and Deed: Oh, the Humanity and Other Hood Intentions

On Title and Deed

A haunting and often fiercely funny meditation on life as a state of permanent exileThe marvel of Mr. Enos voice is how naturally it combines a carefully sculptured lyricism with sly, poker-faced humor. Everyday phrases and familiar platitudesDont ever change, Who knowsare turned inside out or twisted into blunt, unexpected punch lines punctuating long rhapsodic passages that leave you happily word-drunk.

Charles Isherwood, New York Times

The piece proves to be an always fascinating and surprisingly moving seventy minutes of theatreWhat emerges from his humorous, sometimes stream-of-conscious patter is a heartfelt exploration of the transience of everything in this life, from words themselves, to relationships, to our very existence.

Andy Propst, TheaterMania

Title and Deed is daring within its masquerade of the mundane, spectacular within its minimalism and hilarious within its display of po-faced bewilderment. It is a clown play that capers at the edge of the abyssEnos voice is unique; his play is stage poetry of a high order. You cant see the ideas coming in Title and Deed. When they arrivetiptoeing in with a quiet yet startling energyyou dont quite know how they got there. In this tales brilliant telling, it is not the narrator who proves unreliable but life itself. The unspoken message of Enos smart, bleak musings seems to be: enjoy the nothingness while you can.

John Lahr, New Yorker

Pensive, lyrical, deeply funny and profoundly sad.

Marilyn Stasio, Variety

On Oh, the Humanity and other good intentions

If youve ever had an urge to drop to your knees begging can somebody help me please? or wanted to admit I dont know, I just dont know, then these five playlets by Will Eno are for youEno is a supreme monologist, using a distinctive, edgy blend of non sequiturs and provisional statements to explore the fragility of our existence, the way we determinedly cling on even when the rug is disintegrating thread by thread, gone before it can be pulled from underneath us. There are a lot of words, but they are always exquisitely chosen Oh, the Humanity reveals that we are beautiful walking tragedies blinking with absurd optimism into the camera lens of history.

Lyn Gardner, Guardian

Funny and tragic and truthfulfor the uninitiated, Oh, the Humanity provides a perfect introduction to Enos work Made up of five short plays, this is stripped back drama that is all about rich dialogue and big ideas.

WhatsOnStage

Mr. Enos unmistakable voiceaggressively stylized, unendingly compassionate, flecked with weird, bleak humorrings out with the same arresting originality in this hour-long evening of playfully profound theaterMr. Eno dares to believe that the theatre is the natural forum for a collective reckoning with the brutal truths and the consoling beauties of experienceall those big-ticket items that you blush to discuss publicly. His despairing figures lay bare their lonely, wounded hearts without blinking, holding mirrors up to our own. What better place for such an encounter? At the theatre, after all, we can feel most powerfully a sense of communion in lifes solitude. It is a place to go to feel alone together.

Charles Isherwood, New York Times

BOOKS BY WILL ENO

AVAILABLE FROM TCG

The Flu Season and Other Plays

ALSO INCLUDES:

Intermission

Tragedy: a tragedy

Gnit

Middletown

The Realistic Joneses [forthcoming]

Thom Pain (based on nothing)

Title and Deed/

Oh, the Humanity and Other Good Intentions

Title and Deed is copyright 2012 by Will Eno

Oh, the Humanity and other good intentions is copyright 2008 by Will Eno

Title and Deed/Oh, the Humanity and other good intentions is published by Theatre Communications Group, Inc., 520 Eighth Avenue, 24th Floor, New York, NY 10018-4156

Behold the Coach, in a Blazer, Uninsured appeared in a slightly different version in Harpers Magazine, February 2003.

All Rights Reserved. Except for brief passages quoted in newspaper, magazine, radio or television reviews, no part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying or recording, or by an information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publisher. Professionals and amateurs are hereby warned that this material, being fully protected under the Copyright Laws of the United States of America and all other countries of the Berne and Universal Copyright Conventions, is subject to a royalty. All rights, including but not limited to, professional, amateur, recording, motion picture, recitation, lecturing, public reading, radio and television broadcasting, and the rights of translation into foreign languages are expressly reserved. Particular emphasis is placed on the question of readings and all uses of this book by educational institutions, permission for which must be secured from the authors representative: Mark Subias, United Talent Agency, 888 Seventh Avenue, Ninth Floor New York, NY 10106: 212.659.2600.

This volume is published in arrangement with Oberon Books Ltd, 521 Caledonian Road, London, N7 9RH.

This publication is made possible in part by the New York State Council on the Arts with the support of Governor Andrew Cuomo and the New York State Legislature.

TCG books are exclusively distributed to the book trade by Consortium Book Sales and Distribution.

A catalogue record for this book is available from the Library of Congress.

ISBN 978-1-55936-777-6 (ebook)

Front cover image by Simon Larbalestier, Desert Storm 2001

Back cover image by Rodolfo Clix/Stock.ZCHNG

First Edition, September 2014

Contents

To Jim Houghton, now and forever

Title and Deed was first performed at The Alice Griffin Jewel Box Theatre on May 8 2012 with the following cast:

Man: Conor Lovett

Creative Team

Director: Judy Hegarty Lovett

Set Designer: Christine Jones

Costume Designer: Andrea Lauer

Lighting Designer: Ben Stanton

Production Stage Manager: Donald Fried

United States Premiere originally produced by Signature Theatre (James Houghton, Founding Artistic Director; Erika Mallin, Executive Director) in association with Gare St Lazare Players Ireland in the Alice Griffin Jewel Box Theatre at The Pershing Square Signature Center. Opening: May 20, 2012.

Signature Theatre is a not-for-profit organization founded in 1991 by James Houghton. The company exists to honor and celebrate the playwright. Signature makes an extended commitment to a playwrights body of work, and during this journey the writer is engaged in every aspect of the creative process. Signature is the first theatre company to devote an entire season to the work of a single playwright, including reexaminations of past writings as well as New York and world premieres. By championing in-depth explorations of a living playwrights body of work, Signature delivers an intimate and immersive journey into the playwrights singular vision.

Dramatis Personae

MAN

Setting

the theater, a room, the present

Characters

just a man; ideally, he is slightly foreign to his audience, though a native speaker of English

Wardrobe

simple, normal

Props

a bag or backpack containing a three-foot-long section of a wooden broomstick and a metal lunch box.