Éric-Emmanuel Schmitt’s Enigma Variations is one of the best plays I have seen this year. It is therefore unsurprising that it had been translated into forty-five languages. It is a masterpiece of storytelling by slow reveal, featuring only two people and one location.
Journalist Erik Larsen travels to a remote island to interview Nobel prize-winning author Abel Znorko, who has holed himself up away from the world. They find they have a common denominator in a woman they both know. The discussion revolves around her, their emotions, and how they have lived their lives – but things are not what they seem.
The dialogue is sharp, swift and alarming, all at the same time. These men manoeuvre around each other like a snake and a mongoose. Why is Larsen even there, when, as Znorko says, ‘I hate journalists and I only converse with myself.’ Znorko is easily in command of his territory, with his expansive gestures, and biting put-down witticisms. He is the only inhabitant of an island in the far north, a land of long days and long nights and no other seasons – that’s what Znorko likes.
Toby Wynn-Davies plays Znorko brilliantly, all flashing eyes and determined chin. Jacob Hutchings is equally superb as the lumbering, sensitive Erik Larsen, yet his character is a match for his interviewee as he subtly badgers Znorko in an attempt to uncover the truth. ‘I am a forger’ says Abel, he admits he tells lies. Larsen stands up to him ‘Your reputation as a misanthrope is clearly not exaggerated’. He won’t even concede Znorko’s superlative talent.
Znorko dazzles us with verbal pyrotechnics, but time wears him down. We watch as this arrogant man gradually breaks down, but we pity the fragility of the man. ‘Happiness – what’s the point of that?’ he spits bitterly at Larsen. His cynicism is peeled away as he is forced to confront deception on top of deception into which he has willingly propelled himself. He is obviously vastly intellectually superior to Larsen, but time and again the slower man sets a trap into which Znorko falls.
Their differences are great, but romance and lost love enthral them both. ‘Sex is better with your eyes closed,’ says Znorko; Larsen feels intimacy is better with your eyes open.
The scene is enriched by the excellent set of a writer’s office which is crowded but bleached out so everything is grey; even the letters which are a feature of the plot are on grey paper in grey envelopes.
The twists and turns in this plot had the audience transfixed. You won’t see a better constructed short play in London.
Cast: Toby Wynn-Davies, Jacob Hutchings
Writer: Éric-Emmanuel Schmitt
Translator: Jeremy Sams
Director: Lydia Sax
Set Design: Matteo Mastrandrea
Running Time: 90 Mins
Venue: OSO The Theatre On Barnes Pond
OSO Arts Centre: 8-15th November 2025