The Conduct of Life
by Maria Irene Fornes
directed by Marti Lyons
Tooth and Nail Ensemble
2009
“Kevin V. Smith embodies the military might a superpower can rain down upon a small frail nation that has something that the superpower desires. Smith squeezes every possible drop of sympathy out of the audience for this unrepentant, unsympathetic character.
Orlando is vile beyond all limit, and somehow Smith gives us the man who is also that monster. Smith strongly plays to the immaturity required in someone who can treat a person like a thing to be used in accordance with the slightest whim — chilling, sickening, a performance you cannot turn away from nor shut your eyes to.”
“Kevin V. Smith [is] intense.”
“Kevin V. Smith’s performance as the interrogator [is] chilling.”
“The ratcheting intensity of Smith’s and Olson’s performances keeps our attention.”
“Some devilry must have extracted the soul from Kevin V. Smith’s Orlando in The Conduct of Life — presented by Tooth and Nail and by Two Lights at the Viaduct. Smith’s brutal, megalomaniacal military interrogator was riveting and vile.”
Photos John Taflan