Axler introduces us to a happy young couple, Colby (Cassie Beck) and Nick (Greg Keller), eagerly anticipating the birth of their first child. On an early sonogram the child appears as a smudge, and Colby jokingly refers to it thus throughout her pregnancy. Nick works for the Census Bureau under his brother, Pete (Brian Sgambati), a loquacious joker who has asked Nick to prepare a presentation to the United Nations on the subject of "family and fertility." (Axler is not light-handed in her ironies.) When Colby gives birth to the smudge—a seriously deformed little being—the playwright wants us to witness the reactions of all three characters to this living disaster.
The smudge then becomes the fourth character in the play, seen only as a baby carriage alive with complex tubing, flashing lights, and sound. Nick goes into deep denial, forever looking for a sign of human reaction. At work he sends out a crazy questionnaire on killing. Colby resorts to eating cheesecake, cutting the arms and legs off baby clothes to make a toy, and believing that the baby carriage is giving her messages. Pete, on finally seeing the smudge, joins his brother in denying what exists before his eyes.
Axler is unable to find a cohesive style to express this tricky material. In reaching for a kind of comic edginess, the play walks a rocky path between naturalism and absurdity in its attempt to convey a situation that is unspeakably sad. These two aspects, unfortunately, have a way of neutralizing each other, often resulting in an exercise in uneasiness.
Just as the playwright is brave, so are the performers, under the sure direction of Pam MacKinnon. Keller is the model of paternal pain, Sgambati reveals a gentler self behind the aggressive jollity, and, best of all, Beck demonstrates a believable humanity in an unbelievable situation.
In the final scene, the playwright opts for reality as Colby and Nick agree, "It's going to be hard," a neat summation for a play that is often hard going.
Presented by Women's Project at the Julia Miles Theater, 424 W. 55th St., NYC. Jan.11–Feb. 7. Mon. and Tue., 7 p.m.; Thu.–Sat., 8 p.m.; Sun., 3 p.m. (212) 239-6200, (800) 432-7250, or www.telecharge.com. Casting by Alaine Alldaffer and Lisa Donadio.