Title and Deed / Oh, the Humanity and Other Good Intentions - by Will Eno (Paperback)

About the Book

A new collection by the author of Pulitzer Prize finalist Thom Pain (based on nothing).

Book Synopsis

"A haunting and often fiercely funny meditation on life as a state of permanent exile... The marvel of Mr. Eno's voice is how naturally it combines a carefully sculptured lyricism with sly, poker-faced humor. Everyday phrases and familiar platitudes--'Don't ever change, ' 'Who knows'--are 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 on Title and Deed

"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 abyss... Eno's voice is unique; his play is stage poetry of a high order. You can't see the ideas coming in Title and Deed. When they arrive--tiptoeing in with a quiet yet startling energy--you don't quite know how they got there. In this tale's brilliant telling, it is not the narrator who proves unreliable but life itself. The unspoken message of Eno's smart, bleak musings seems to be: enjoy the nothingness while you can." --John Lahr, New Yorker

"Eno is a supreme monologist, using a distinctive, edgy blend of non sequiturs and provisional statements to explore the fragility of our existence... 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

Known for his wry humor and deeply moving plays, Will Eno's "gift for articulating life's absurd beauty and its no less absurd horrors may be unmatched among writers of his generation" (New York Times). This new volume of the acclaimed playwright's work includes five short plays about being alive--Behold the Coach, in a Blazer, Uninsured; Ladies and Gentlemen, the Rain; Enter the Spokeswoman, Gently; The Bully Composition; and Oh, the Humanity--as well as Title and Deed, a haunting and severely funny solo rumination on life as everlasting exile.

WILL ENO lives in Brooklyn, New York. His plays include The Flu Season, Tragedy: a tragedy, King: a problem play, and Intermission. His plays have been produced in London by the Gate Theatre and BBC Radio, and in the United States by Rude Mechanicals and Naked Angels. His play The Flu Season recently won the Oppenheimer Award, presented by NY Newsday for the previous year's best debut production in New York by an American playwright.

Review Quotes

Title and Deed:
"A haunting and often fiercely funny meditation on life as a state of permanent exile... The marvel of Mr. Eno's voice is how naturally it combines a carefully sculptured lyricism with sly, poker-faced humor. Everyday phrases and familiar platitudes--'Don't ever change, ' 'Who knows'--are 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

"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 abyss... Eno's voice is unique; his play is stage poetry of a high order. You can't see the ideas coming in Title and Deed. When they arrive--tiptoeing in with a quiet yet startling energy--you don't quite know how they got there. In this tale's brilliant telling, it is not the narrator who proves unreliable but life itself. The unspoken message of Eno's 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

Oh the Humanity
"Eno is a supreme monologist, using a distinctive, edgy blend of non sequiturs and provisional statements to explore the fragility of our existence... 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



Title and Deed:
"A haunting and often fiercely funny meditation on life as a state of permanent exile... The marvel of Mr. Eno's voice is how naturally it combines a carefully sculptured lyricism with sly, poker-faced humor. Everyday phrases and familiar platitudes-'Don't ever change, ' 'Who knows'-are 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

"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 abyss... Eno's voice is unique; his play is stage poetry of a high order. You can't see the ideas coming in Title and Deed. When they arrive-tiptoeing in with a quiet yet startling energy-you don't quite know how they got there. In this tale's brilliant telling, it is not the narrator who proves unreliable but life itself. The unspoken message of Eno's 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

Oh the Humanity
"Eno is a supreme monologist, using a distinctive, edgy blend of non sequiturs and provisional statements to explore the fragility of our existence... 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



Title and Deed:
"A haunting and often fiercely funny meditation on life as a state of permanent exile... The marvel of Mr. Eno's voice is how naturally it combines a carefully sculptured lyricism with sly, poker-faced humor. Everyday phrases and familiar platitudes--'Don't ever change, ' 'Who knows'--are 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

"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 abyss... Eno's voice is unique; his play is stage poetry of a high order. You can't see the ideas coming in Title and Deed. When they arrive--tiptoeing in with a quiet yet startling energy--you don't quite know how they got there. In this tale's brilliant telling, it is not the narrator who proves unreliable but life itself. The unspoken message of Eno's 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

Oh the Humanity
"Eno is a supreme monologist, using a distinctive, edgy blend of non sequiturs and provisional statements to explore the fragility of our existence... 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

About the Author

WILL ENO is a fellow of Residency Five at Signature Theatre Company in New York. His play The Open House premiered at Signature in 2014, and received an Obie Award, the Lucille Lortel Award for Best Play, and a Drama Desk Special Award. His play The Realistic Joneses premiered at Yale Repertory Theatre in 2012, and was produced on Broadway in 2014, for which he and the cast received a Drama Desk Special Award. His play Title and Deed premiered at Signature in 2012 and was presented at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival in 2014. Both Title and Deed and The Realistic Joneses were included in the New York Times Best Plays List of 2012. Gnit, an adaption of Ibsen's Peer Gynt, premiered at Actors Theatre of Louisville in 2013. Middletown, winner of the Horton Foote Prize, premiered at the Vineyard Theatre in New York in 2010, and was then produced at Steppenwolf Theatre Company in Chicago in 2011. Thom Pain (based on nothing) was a finalist for the 2005 Pulitzer Prize and has been translated into many languages. The Flu Season premiered at the Gate Theatre in London in 2003, and later received the Oppenheimer Award for best New York debut production by an American writer. Tragedy: a tragedy premiered at the Gate Theatre in 2001, and was subsequently produced by Berkeley Repertory Theatre in 2008. Mr. Eno lives in Brooklyn with his wife Maria Dizzia and their daughter Albertine.