The cast of the Yale Rep production was as follows: The play (subtitled "A Mysterious Overture") is an extended one-act, lasting about an hour, with a single set.
The play begins after he enters, sits down at the piano (facing away from the audience), cracks his knuckles high above his head, and there is a loud, female scream offstage as the lights go out.
His body (indicated by the chalk outline) was found on the floor, with its face and fingerprints completely cut out, so he can't be identified for sure.
Each of them quarrels with the detectives and describes Niles, their hero, as a great genius who composed music which was so far ahead of its time that no one understood it.
The detectives lead off Niles for his punishment – he faked his own suicide, and they can't let him get away with that – and maybe he committed a murder, leaving a corpse on the floor of his house.
The tropical lampshade winks out, apparently by itself, leaving the stage dark, as the noise and music continue, but they eventually fade out, as the play ends.