A black comedy in one act and three movements.

A play by Marius Tianu.

Everyone has an opinion about the book. One man has read it.

In the main hall of a cultural institute, in a European capital that would prefer not to be named, a very thick novel sits in a locked glass case, lit like a relic. Tonight it will be celebrated. A critic who has written six thousand words about it. A publisher who never gives a number. A director adapting it without the rights. An influencer who posted forty seconds of the director’s teaser and has more views than the book has readers. A sponsor whose billboards are already up. A moderator who needs the evening to go smoothly.

Then Paul arrives. He is in his fifties, he services lifts, and he has read every page, at a bedside, over many nights. He answers every question simply. That is the problem.

As the clock counts down to the public reading, a literary evening turns into a polite tribunal, and the only reader in the room has to be reclassified before the celebration can go on.

Seven actors. One set. About an hour. Written in English.

For theatres

In development. The full script is available to theatres on request.

The play grows out of The Apophatic Man, a novel by Marius Tianu. The screen adaptation is And Yet… Not.