| Summary: | The Unexpected man by Yasmina Reza features two characters, a man and a woman, sitting face to face in a train. The man is an author, a renowed novelist, Mr. Parsky, and Martha, one of his assiduous readers. They have never seen each other. The dramatic tension of the play is focused on one question : Will this woman make this man know she knows who he is ? The location of the action makes sens, it protects the protagonists (the outside is an object of contemplation and can’t disrupt Martha’s plans), but this honeymoon period is limited : as the miles are driven, the urgency is becoming obvious. In this protected and yet limited time, the characters think about their past, giving the play a very important memorial dimension. One shall see how the construction of the piece, the plot development and the characterization of the characters are inextricably linked to this situational framework. Within the treatrical æsthetic, the journey by train determines each element of The Unexpected man.
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