chunk: Nicky Rogan has written several plays and has achieved success. It is now opening night of his latest effort, and all around him assure him that this one will be the best yet. But as opening hour approaches, Rogan falls prey to doubts and fears, egged on by another playwright whose last work was trashed by the local newspaper's new drama critic, Steven Schwimmer. He eventually lets those fears drive him to adopt a resolve to kill the critic (who he assumes will also trash his play), and he procures a handgun with which to perform the deed.
  Instead of attending the play's opening night Rogan spends the time in a bar, accompanied by a lady cab driver and her grandson; earlier in the evening the lady misidentified Rogan as a local small-time hoodlum, and Rogan does not correct her misidentification.