Darkness at Noon: A Play Based on the Novel by Arthur KoestlerA play in three acts by Sidney Kingsley, based on the novel by Arthur Koestler. This winner of the Drama Critics Award starred Claude Rains on Broadway. A Soviet Commissar with considerable power in the party is jailed as the curtain goes up. He made two serious errors: he once fell in love with his secretary and he shot off his mouth at an inopportune moment. His torments and frustrations in the cell are dramatically heightened by other prisoners who communicate with him by tapping on the walls. Retrospective scenes explain his sentence and the series of ludicrously unjust hearings that lead to his execution. |
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ALBERT ammonia ANDRÉ ARTHUR KOESTLER bashov Benito blows a smoke bottle chimney sweepers cigarette Citizen Rubashov Comintern Comrade Commissar confession corridor counter-revolutionary cynically Darkness at Noon dead desk dockworker door drink drumming eyes face faded patches father glances glasses God is dead goes hands HRUTSCH INTERROGATOR iron IVANOFF judas-hole Kieffer Kolya laughs Leader leans lights fade listen long pause looks Luba Loshenko LUBA's LUIGI Mischa Bogrov Moscow murmurs N. S. Rubashov nods PABLO pace Party picks Pietà prison puts quickly quietly Revolution RICHARD RICHARD YOUNG rises RUBA Rubashov arrested RUBASHOV's cell sabotage SECRETARY shakes his head shouts SHOV SIDNEY KINGSLEY sighs silence sits smiles smoke ring softly spectacles stand staring STORM TROOPER suddenly takes talk taps three tell There's Three taps turns to GLETKIN turns to RUBASHOV vanish voice walks wall What's whispers wrong YOUNG OFFICER