Characters: 2m, 1f / Dark Comedy / Interior A dark comedy about the changing face of the American family and the limits of love and cheesecake, as a hopeful young couple gives birth to a smudge, written by two-time Emmy Award winner Rachel Axler. "For signs of intelligent life in the theatrical universe, I hereby refer you to Smudge, Rachel Axler"s pitch-black comedy."- Marilyn Stasio, Variety "Creepy and funny. Precise and imaginative. Parenthood never looked weirder or more terrifying than it does in Smudge"- Rachel Saltz, The New York Times "The mysterious newborn in Rachel Axler"s smart, piquant Smudge is not lovable-looking... In some sense, Axler"s dark comedy is a horror story: a parent"s nightmare rendered with sometimes lyrical surrealism.... A meditation on ambiguity and ambivalence, Smudge also illustrates ambition: a parent"s, thwarted, and a playwright"s, achieved."- Adam Feldman, Time Out New York "Smudge is filled with laughs, due to Rachel Axler"s tart way with quips, director Pam MacKinnon"s brisk, unsentimental touch, and the ability of both Greg Keller and Cassie Beck to make their characters real and complex."- Jennifer Farrar, Associated Press "An ambitious play, one that ponders such big questions as how to communicate and what it means to be alive. A play that sticks with you, both for its laughs and for its message."- Julia Furay, CurtainUp "It"s a testament to Rachel Axler"s excellent writing and a marvellous cast that this dark sci-fi comedy actually works. In its weird way, the play gets to the heart of the matter: most of us, when we"re young, look forward to happy, normal lives-2.5 kids, a picket fence, all the flotsam and jetsam of the American dream-but end up with much more difficult realities." -The New Yorker