Breaking the Fifth

Legendary playwright Godfrey Winters (Frank Langella) makes a desperate attempt at a comeback after ten years in exile. Legendary playwright Godfrey Winters has not been seen outside his isolated estate in almost a decade. His last play, "Searching for Jocko's Leg", was famous for holding audiences frozen to their seats in awe, hours after the final curtain had dropped. But that was long ago; Now, the reclusive Master Playwright is resurfacing with his latest, and perhaps last tour-de-force: a play that will plunder the depths of the human psyche and tear down the notorious "Fifth Wall" of the theater, The Wall of Madness. Godfrey summons two struggling and largely inept young actors to his secluded estate to workshop what he hopes will be his theatrical comeback, 'Breaking the Fifth'. As the two arrive, they are promptly submersed into a series of bizarre improvisational acting exercises that assault their dignity and chafe their sanity. The actors continually fail their early tests, and Godfrey increases the pressure by announcing the imminent arrival of "The Greatest Performer of All Time," who will rehearse his own part in the new masterpiece. As the clock ticks and the arrival of the The Great One looms overhead, Godfrey unleashes more psychological, physical and emotional experiments upon the hapless actors. He dangles the carrot of fame and fortune in front of them before finally revealing the true theme of his play. Either they are about to give birth to the greatest play ever written, or they will be buried in the woods trying. —ASC