Before the performance of Neil LaBute’s The Break of Noon began, my opinion of MCC Theater at the Lucille Lortel Theater was not great.  Prior to arriving to the off-Broadway theater, I was definitely not expecting an extravagant theater.  However, it was difficult for my opinion of the theater not to be lowered when the theater appeared to not have been renovated for 25 years (its entire life span), there was no hot water in the bathroom, and how can I forgot the constant draft of cold air that was blowing onto me during the performance.

Despite these inconveniences, I attempted to forget all of them and enjoy the show.  I had seen another of LaBute’s works Reasons to Be Pretty during its run on Broadway and am a big fan of that show.  Also, I was sure the show could not be extremely horrible if the well-known actor from “X-Files” David Duchovny was staring in it.

At the commencement of the show, the audience was not explicitly informed that the show was starting, but anyone could figure it out when the lights began to lower and noises of police and fire engines were loudly heard.  In the middle of the stage David Duchovny sat on a chair; he looked like he had just gone through a bad chain of events because he had blood on his shirt and much of his clothing was disheveled.  The brilliant thing about the writing of this opening scene is that everyone, despite if one knows anything about the show, can quickly understand what is going on in the story.  This is true throughout the entire performance; there was no part of the show where the audience is unaware of what is going on which is a huge success both on the part of Neil LaBute, and the actors as well.

One important thing to take notice of is even though the play incorporates seven characters, only four actors were in the show.  In other words, every actor besides David Duchovny played the role of two characters.  The quality of every single character’s performances was so exceptional that I did not notice this dual identity until extremely late in the performance.  A second thing to note is the way it was decided to do set changes.  At the end of a scene, the bright lights surrounding the stage sparked on, while the rest of the stage was dimmed with a blue light shinning upon it with just enough light so that the audience is able to watch the sets being changed.  This would make my old Theater teacher extremely proud; he always insisted that this was the only way to change a set while still capturing the attention of the audience.

Even though the performance of LaBute’s Break of Noon proved to be thoroughly entertaining, there is one huge problem with the performance; I am unsure what my end conclusion of the performance is supposed to be.  At the performance’s conclusion, I do not feel as though I completely understand the message that the playwright and actors were trying to tell. This can be a failure on the part of the playwright or actors of effectively communicating the point of the performance across; it can also be a misunderstanding on my part of what was said, which I doubt because everything was completely clear throughout the entire performance.  Maybe the Break of Noon isn’t supposed to leave the audience with a message; if this is true, I feel that all of LaBute’s and the actors hard work was all for nothing.