The End of the Day

The aging romantic lead St. Clair decides to retire from the stage and checks into a charitable old-age home for actors. He arrives as a proud, but financially strapped, figure who will inevitably clash with the others who live there. The home becomes the central setting for the group’s shifting fortunes.

St. Clair meets Marny, a brilliant but underappreciated actor, and Cabrissade, a prankster with big dreams. Each man carries pride and unresolved grievances that reflect a lifetime spent in the shadows of fame. The trio — and the ensemble — form the core social dynamic of the home.

A 17-year-old barmaid arrives in town and becomes enamored with St. Clair's celebrated romance. She sees him as a symbol of love's glamour, not the self-absorbed flâneur he truly is. Marny watches with mixed resignation and pity.

Having come into a windfall, St. Clair abandons the barmaid and travels to Monte Carlo to squander his fortune. The retreat from the old-age home underscores his ongoing vanity and detachment from those around him. Back in the home, the residents' precarious finances grow even more pressing.

Electricity after 9pm and evening wine are halted, provoking Cabrissade to lead a revolt of the residents. The uprising exposes the conflict between dignity for aging performers and the management's control. The scene foreshadows the home’s looming threat of closure.

The director reveals the facility will be closed and each resident will be dispersed to other homes. Fear and uncertainty ripple through the group, who fear losing their shared history and community. In response, they rally around a plan to demonstrate their worth to potential benefactors.

A long-coupled pair decides to marry so they can remain together in the home, a small victory amid the crisis. Shortly after, the director announces that financing has been secured to keep the home open. The relief is tempered by the need to stage something worthy for the new donors.

The residents decide to put on a play as a showcase for new benefactors, hoping to secure ongoing support. The project brings them back to the core craft they share and gives Cabrissade and Marny a new arena to compete for respect. The upcoming production re-centers the group's fragile pride around theatre itself.

St. Clair returns to the town with empty pockets and resumes wooing the barmaid, hoping to rekindle a power over her emotions. He pushes her to prove her devotion, signaling a plan that hinges on the play’s success. The group’s dynamics are once again driven by his ego.

During preparations, Cabrissade pushes for the lead role he longs to perform, even dressing as Marny to try out. The attempt backfires as stage fright grips him the moment the audience appears, and the rehearsal collapses in humiliation. Marny ends up delivering the part, highlighting the gap between dream and reality.

Overwhelmed by the humiliation and unfulfilled longings, Cabrissade dies in despair, a quiet tragedy that underscores the cost of chasing the theatre's glamour. His death marks a somber turning point for the troupe. The loss threatens to erase years of camaraderie built within the home.

St. Clair attempts to push the barmaid toward suicide to prove his control over women, but Marny intervenes and interrupts the plan. The moment sends St. Clair into a dangerous, Don Juan-inspired frenzy, blurring the line between art and madness. The group confronts the consequences of his vanity.

St. Clair is confined to an asylum as the others reckon with the consequences of his actions. Marny reads a eulogy for Cabrissade that Cabrissade himself wrote, praising his loyalty and love for the theatre, and then speaks with heartfelt reverence for his fallen comrade. The final tribute cements Cabrissade’s noble spirit in the troupe's memory.