The Unexpected Man

The Unexpected Man (L'homme du hasard) is a play written in 1995 by Yasmina Reza. The play is set in a train from Paris to Frankfurt, with two people sharing a compartment. One is a famous author, and the other is a woman who admires his work.

Plot
A man and a woman sit opposite each other in the detached intimacy of a train compartment on a journey from Paris to Frankfurt. He is a world-famous author, she carries his latest novel in her bag and ponders the dilemma of reading it in front of him. As both the woman and man ponder their situation in the compartment, they bring past events and philosophies up in separate monologues. Finally in the ending of the play, they speak conversationally, and in the last line of the show the woman calls the author by his name, revealing to him that she did indeed know who he was.

Characters
Parsky: A well-known author, travelling to Frankfurt to meet his daughter's significantly older fiancé.

Martha: A middle-aged woman, a fan of Parsky's oeuvre.

Productions
From 8 April 1998 – 9 May 1998, a production of the play ran at the Barbican Pit Centre. A revival ran from 10 June 1998 – 22 August 1998 at West End's Duchess Theatre. Both productions were directed by Matthew Warchus, and starred Eileen Atkins as Martha and Michael Gambon as Paul Parsky.

From 24 October 2000 – 28 January 2001, Christopher Hampton translated it for an Off-Broadway production at the McGinn/Cazale Theater, which ran for 112 shows. The play was once again directed by Warchus, with Atkins reprising her role (here known as The Woman) this time alongside Alan Bates (here referred to as The Man). It received several accolades, including nominations from the Lucille Lortel Awards for Best Play, Best Actress, and Best Actor; Bates won the latter. He was also nominated for a Drama Desk Award, while Atkins was also nominated for an Outer Critics Circle Award.

Cesear's Forum, Cleveland's minimalist theatre company, presented the play at Kennedy's Down Under, Playhouse Square in a May/June 2007 production.