We find him, at the beginning of the story, unrecognizable. Edward, suffering from neurofibromatosis, an orphan disease causing the appearance of tumors on the face, aspires to find his place in society. Having fallen in love with his neighbor, he volunteers to test an operation that will allow him to change his appearance. And it works! Edward has become confusingly banal and no one recognizes him.
It’s there that he learns that his neighbor is putting on a play based on his “him” from before. Neither one nor two, our man manages to get the role, making up his face to better plunge back into an existential crisis. Which intensifies even more when Oswald, suffering from the same illness but ultra-sociable and jovial – everything Edward would have wanted to be before – enters the dance.
Does this whole thing seem crazy to you? She certainly is. A Different Man mischievously tickles the obsessions of our personalities shaped by appearance and the desire to please at all costs. Like a game of mirrors that leans on the grotesque and presses where it hurts. So you never really know which foot to dance on. To be shocked? Laugh ? Complain about this guy who is never happy? The story constantly confuses us. We don’t really know where we are anymore but whatever: this guy’s crisis brings us face to face with ourselves and the world around us.
Once you have accepted it, all that remains is to let yourself be carried away and savor this revealing provocation.
