The Break of Noon

MCC Theater at the Lucille Lortel Theatre

New York

(212) 279-4200

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“Would you believe God’s next prophet if he showed up today?” asked Mark Kennedy in the Associated Press. That’s the central question in Neil LaBute’s new dystopian drama. Its main character, played by David Duchovny, is John Smith, the “sole survivor of a mass office shooting” who comes to believe that divine intervention spared him. An avowed changed man, he establishes a one-person ministry and awkwardly attempts to proselytize the people around him. Yet as Smith shares his story, its details change, allowing glimpses of his boorish personality to emerge and leaving the audience with strong doubts of the authenticity of his conversion experience.

Alas, the premise is “more intriguing than the play” itself, said Linda Winer in Newsday. A “famously devious and prolific” writer, LaBute lately seems to be content with churning out a string of ambiguous “morality plays” that are all deeply cynical about human nature. The formula worked for previous shows, including the Tony-nominated Reasons to Be Pretty; here, it fails to “keep us engaged.” Duchovny, however, deserves credit for working to make his character “more believable and interesting than written.” In his professional stage debut, the “quick-minded and appealing” star of The X-Files and Californication employs an enigmatic deadpan that is intermittently broken when he hurls abuse at the people—including his ex-wife (Amanda Peet) and a call girl (Tracee Chimo)—whom he’s trying to “save.”

Actually, Duchovny’s approach is far from effective, said Ben Brantley in The New York Times. The actor “does admirably by his opening monologue,” when his shaken character explains the events of the shooting to the police. But as “the play’s pulse plummets,” his subdued combination of “bewilderment and irritation” does nothing to quicken it. It’s not clear that the “fault lies within the actor,” though, as LaBute may have demanded that the character be unchanging. At the last moment, there’s “a nifty coup de théâtre that demands that you rethink everything you’ve seen.” But one neat trick—and some solid supporting performances—hardly justifies “the ennui of sitting through the previous hour and a half.”