Unaffected Unexpected Man
“…the meat of a conversation obviously doesn’t lie in what’s actually said…”” (Martha)
Yasmina Reza’s The Unexpected Man is often criticised for being better on page than on stage. I beg to differ. A commonly uttered phrase before one embarks on a bus or plane is “I hope I sit next to someone nice”. The tense, awkward negotiation of personal vs public space is a kind of torture. Well, maybe only for some of us…
The Unexpected Man, performed by Zanne Solomon and Shaun Acker, is saturated with tension and growing despair. The play is very funny too, yet it’s not ongoing guffaws but intermittent chortles in recognition of its existential moments. Dealing with death, angst, insomnia, and failure, the philosophy is carefully woven into the characters’ personal struggles.
The plot, briefly: a world-famous author, Paul Parsky (Acker) and a woman, Martha (Solomon) sit opposite each other in a train compartment; he has written The Unexpected Man and she is currently reading the novel.
The Unexpected Man is delicately crafted with sublime subtlety; hence Zanne Solomon’s nomination for Best New Director at the 2014 Fleur du Cap Awards. Nifty stagecraft transforms the stage into a moving train. Lighting and score are understated – there’s no glitz and glam. Just unadulterated, unaffected performances and the power of dramatic tension.
Solomon expertly embodies the lonesome, middle-aged Martha, fidgety and nervous to address her favourite author, whom chance has seated across from her. Must she reveal that she recognises him? Must she expose his novel concealed in her handbag?
Acker skilfully conjures the character of the cynical writer, bitter with his author friends’ successes. He perfectly presents the paradox of a man on the brink of abandoning his writing career but one who is ecstatic when he realises his compartment companion is reading his novel.
However, both are ‘unreliable narrators’; we initially trust them, sharing their innermost desires, secrets and insecurities. Each presents an inner world layered with intelligence, introspection, feelings of love, hurt, intimidation… loneliness… But they are soon undercut or contradicted by the other’s opinions.
Public transport spawns a particular intimacy. A shared space. Often, we become interested in another traveller’s life… our judgements are quick. And superficial. We see this in Parsky’s imagining of Martha’s life: her lover is a conductor and she frequents art galleries. We fill the space, the emptiness between strangers, with assumptions often far off the mark.
Sometimes theatre gives you all flash and bang. Sometimes it asks you to submit, be absorbed by thoughtful musings, and simply observe. The Unexpected Man isn’t better on page. Its power is in the subtext, the unspoken nuances of interaction, the twisting of a necklace, a sideways shot glance…
Solomon and Acker are exceptional in The Unexpected Man. As an audience member said on exiting, “How brilliant was that? The acting… I’m shaking.”
— Sarah Roberson