David Woodhead has designed the perfect set occupying a small stage. It is an old-fashioned office with high ceilings, a tall, wide window and ordinary looking office furniture. The set goes a long way toward setting the atmosphere.

Cornelius (Alan Cox) is partnered with Robert Murrison in a firm (Briggs and Murrison) that imports and sells aluminum. Murrison is traveling, which leaves Cornelius to deal with creditors and the mountain of debt that has accumulated. A group of creditors descend on the company, but the meeting ends unsatisfactorily as nothing can be done until Murrison arrives, and Cornelius puts up a front to assure the creditors that all will work out.

When Murrison does arrive, he looks very distracted and it becomes increasingly clear that all is lost for the company. There will be no good news.

The play’s strength lies in the creation of its characters and the way in which an adverse situation will affect their lives. Biddle (Col Farrell), for example, has worked for the firm for many years keeping its books and records. Although losing his job is a setback, he is basically a happy man with a family and thus can emotionally weather the storm. He is beyond setting off on a new career, but seems content to pursue life’s pleasures.

On the other hand, there is more of a blow to a long-time woman assistant, Miss Porrin (Pandora Colin), who has little outside life, and in fact has had a secret crush on Cornelius. A younger and prettier assistant, Judy Evison (Emily Barber), on whom Cornelius has a crush, already has a boyfriend and she takes the loss of work at the firm in stride.

The top victims are Murrison, whose life is shattered by all that has been happening, and Cornelius, who doesn’t readily see any future for himself. As the play’s title suggests, the drama revolves around him, and Alan Cox makes the most of the acting opportunity. He is colorful in his manner, extremely outgoing on the surface and very verbal—a showy characterization that masks his inner doubts, and also hides his shyness in making a moved toward his pretty, young assistant. Whenever personal relationships get closer in the drama results are painful.

It is mainly through Cornelius’s lines that the playwright delivers his viewpoint. The subject of suicide is raised in a discussion between Cornelius and Biddle, with Cornelius thinking suicide an be an act of courage and Biddle arguing vehemently against that idea. Here again the play strikes a contemporary note with the audience, given recent reports about the escalations of suicides in the country by soldiers and students.