On one Wednesday night, I was there again – in front of the theater, waiting to watch The Break of Noon by Neil LaBute. This was the last show that I was going to see in this semester. Frankly, I expected small number of people, but the place actually turned out to be very crowded, majority of them being somewhat old. I thought, ‘what could be possibly attracting this many people to an off-Broadway show?’ and found out after the show that LaBute was a famous playwright who has written several off-Broadway plays before. I, neither familiar with the American culture nor the playwright himself, of course didn’t have any expectations. I just hoped it not to be boring so that I could stay awake.

I went into the theater and got my seat on the front row. I could see the stage clearly from the second floor. The only problem with seating was that a guy beside me was kind of big and the seats weren’t big enough to handle his size, so his arm kept touching my arm during the show which wasn’t really a pleasant experience. Other than that, I liked my seat. No one’s head was blocking my view, and I was ready to enjoy the show.

The show started with John Smith sitting on a chair with blood on his shirt. After a minute, it became clear that he was describing a massacre in his office building to the police officers. David Duchovny, the actor, acted so greatly in this part that it didn’t even seem like he was acting. He expressed the sorrow and fear of the only survivor very well. Anyways, in the play it turned out that Smith was the only survivor. Smith describes the situation with much detail, but it’s not very convincing. He claims that he heard a voice that held him from jumping off of the building, and he is 100% sure that it was God. People don’t believe him, but he doesn’t care. He tries to live a new life by being a messenger of God, even though he doesn’t naturally have a nice, friendly personality. At the end, his body is magically lifted up while he is preaching.

I still don’t understand if this play is pro-God’s existence or the other. In the beginning of the play, I thought this play wanted to show how God can perform a miracle and save a person, thus making him a sincere believer. However, as the play goes on, Smith seems far from being sincere, or even from witnessing the truth. He sells the picture of the victim to a magazine to get rich. He tries to justify it, but it’s clear from his attitude that he actually wanted the money. Also, his testimony becomes a little different every time he speaks about it. He adds on or changes some part slightly to make it sound better. That’s why I thought he was lying about the whole thing toward the end of the show. I expected some kind of reversal like he was the actual murderer. When he was preaching at his own place, I thought the police was going to come in and arrest him.

Maybe I had too much imagination. The show just ended with Smith being lifted up in the air. When I was finally able to realize that the show actually ended, I was really disappointed. I didn’t get the meaning of the ending at all. Maybe it was just me, but I wished that the play had more clear ending that didn’t confuse the audiences. However, I have to admit that this show really captured my mind and kept me interested the whole time. It was a great show overall. If I had a free ticket, without any doubt I would definitely watch this again.