Will Eno: The page, the stage, and the word

Playwright Will Eno has been inseparably linked to the genre of Absurdism and to playwright Samuel Beckett due to New York Times reviewer Charles Isherwood's catchphrase heavy review of Eno's best known work, Thom Pain (based on nothing). Due to the easily quotable genre provided by Isherwood, Eno has been under-analyzed as a practitioner of the theatre, causing his unique and important contributions to remain unnoticed. Through a careful reading of Eno's currently available works, production reviews, critical essays, relevant theories, and blog postings, this thesis reevaluates Eno and his oeuvre apart from Playwright Samuel Beckett and the genre of Absurdism. Eno's use of literature as form, conceptually mediatized diegesis, the stage as setting, compressed binaries, and the absent word (first noted by Marc Silverstein) set him apart from Beckett and the Absurdists. Eno and his works deserve further study and analysis beyond what they have been granted presently. This thesis presents and analyzes the unique blending of techniques employed by playwright Will Eno.

This thesis won 1st Place in the Texas Tech University Outstanding Thesis and Dissertation Award, Humanities/Fine Arts, 2009.