Posted by Paula S Shulak John Grassilli has directed another winner at DTC! "The Smell of the Kill" is a comedy with a message and between its marvelously intricate set (I wish I had a kitchen as nice as that one, especially the skylight); its hysterical one liners ("Does the gun work? It works for me!"); and some fabulous acting by the three ladies who occupy the stage for the entire show (while their inept, retrograde husbands are locked in a meat locker) it is a terrific evening of theater. Michelle Lowe's new play hits the mark in its treatment of the question just how much should a woman endure in a marriage? Three men with three different problems are clearly presented. There is Jay, an embezzler, who expects wife Nicky ( played by Valorie Hubbard) to give up her job and independence to bail him out of his trouble. There is Marty, a womanizer, who has so mentally abused his wife Molly (played by Ellen Tobie) that she has turned from a Phi Beta Kappa graduate to a sniveling apologist. And there is Danny, the stalker, who has smothered his wife Debra (played by Susan Greenhill) with his selfish demands and cannot even see that she desperately wants a baby. The most fascinating element of the script is that none of these men ever appear onstage. We hear their voices and we learn about them from their wives' tales of woe but we do not glimpse
on 4/25/2001, 4:12 pm
Delaware Theater Company Does It Again
them until the curtain call. Grassilli magnificent direction has been unsurpassed for the last two seasons ; he is the DTC's finest asset in my opinion. His creative blocking, especially in the physical choreography during the fight scene among the women, and his clever touches (a clipping tacked on the bulletin board with a kitchen knife) are a joy to watch. When Debra bemoans the fact that , "I care for my husband and I end up being loved by no one," including her son, she epitomizes the underlying themes that make this play so much more than a simple comedy. If you want to laugh AND think, don't miss "The Smell of the Kill" .
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