By Marissa Ferguson

After four years in the making, the play Thom Pain (Based on Nothing) will remount one last time in honor of this year’s Summit.

Emily Rankin, senior theatre major from Abilene and the play’s director, began studying the play her freshman year. After enlisting Jenny Mendl, senior musical theatre major from Abilene, she decided to direct the play with Mendl as Thom Pain.

“The actor and myself put it on last year in January, and it went really well, so we were asked to perform at Summit,” Rankin said. “It’s a bit different for us by preparing ourselves, but we’re happy to have ACU graciously hosting us.”

Mendl said students will enjoy the show because it’s not the average production.

“One of the wonderful things is that it’s interactive with the audience. The audience is the other character,” Mendl said. “If it were just me trying to entertain, it would just be boring, so there’s many things that keep the show electric. What keeps the show alive is the audience.”

Written by the contemporary American playwright Will Eno, the play – a finalist for the 2005 Pulitzer Prize for Drama – is simply Pain’s rambling monologue about his hardships as he struggles to come to terms with his faith and identity.

Rankin said she hoped the audience would find the play particularly relevant.

“The show speaks a lot to the problems that college students tend to deal with, like loneliness, regret and hope,” Rankin said. “It has this amazing and unique ability to show pain as not only a destructive force, but also as a healing force and something that can bring people together.”

Portraying a character that represents the lowest of  lows, Mendl said it’s his character that inspires him the most.

“Thom has been through so much, and a lot of it has been his own fault,” Mendl said. “This show addresses life and how we’re not going to sugarcoat it. It tells that even in struggle, life is so worth living.”

The play will run at 8:30 p.m. Monday in Fulks Theatre, free of charge.