DARKLY COMIC 'SMELL' GETS SWEETER TOWARD END.

Byline: Katherine Karlin Correspondent

'THE SMELL OF the Kill,'' the final installment of the Interact Theatre Company's ``3 x 4'' series, is a black comedy that takes its time to darken. Running a brief 70 minutes, Michele Lowe's one-act plods a little in setting up its allegorical characters before their situation takes a turn for the gratifyingly ghoulish, and stalls in tepid sitcom predictability before jolting us with a hit of arctic air.

Three women are dragged to monthly dinners by their husbands, old college buddies, and after the meal they are summarily exiled to the kitchen while the men engage in drunken bonding in the dining room.

Nicki (Rebecca Tilney) is the evening's hostess, a no-nonsense book editor and new mother whose husband has just been indicted for embezzling millions of dollars. Debra (Amanda Carlin) scrambles to please her browbeating husband, protesting a tad too much that she is fulfilled in her anachronistic marriage. Molly (Laura Hornberger) must answer the constant queries of her creepily adoring spouse, who can't seem to deliver the baby she yearns for.

As the men bark requests from offstage, and Nicki's child whimpers over the baby monitor, each character has an excuse to exit and give the other two time to gossip. Before long, the women are stripped, figuratively and literally, down to their lingerie. Some of Lowe's revelations, however, don't have the impact they are meant to have, and some are simply dropped without resonance. When one character reveals she has been paying tuition for the other's child, nothing is made of this stunning confession, even when they go on to discuss their respective financial troubles.

These characters are more types than people, but the actors try to fill them out with particular touches. Tilney is brittle as Nicki but has moments of killer sarcasm. Hornberger's Molly is a spacey child-woman, but she zings the play's funniest lines in an endearing, otherworldly voice. As Debra, Carlin has the toughest job, since Lowe never gives a clue why this smart woman, once a successful real-estate agent, would give up every shred of dignity to cater to her cad of a husband. But she has a lovely moment describing her dream house with erotic detail.

If the women are one-dimensional, the unseen men are mere cardboard cutouts. Lowe belongs to the all-men-are-jerks school of female empowerment. It's a quaint notion, but necessary to set up the hilarious conflict that ensues, as the men accidentally lock themselves in the meat locker that Nicki's husband keeps for large game. As they listen to the desperate knocking from below, the women are left to consider starting their lives over.

Jane Lanier's direction goes for the easy laugh, and some of her sight gags (including one involving golf balls) are too contrived to work. But the actors make the inevitable cat fight good, campy fun, especially when Nicki gets to put her Amazon legs to good use straddling the helpless Debra.

THE SMELL OF THE KILL - Two stars

Where: NoHo Arts Center, 11136 Magnolia Blvd., North Hollywood.

When: 8 p.m. Fridays and Saturdays, 3 p.m. Sundays; through Jan. 29.

Tickets: $15; call [phone].

In a nutshell: Desperate housewives turn goodfellas.

CAPTION(S):

photo

Photo:

Amanda Carlin, Rebecca Tilney and Laura Hornberger ponder freezing out their jerky husbands in ``The Smell of the Kill.''