Romantic Comedy Play Involves a Killer Twist

 

Every romantic comedy begins with a "cute meet."

That's where the lovers first come together. It might be email, a la "You've Got Mail," or a dog and a dinosaur bone, as in "Bringing Up Baby."

"Catching the Butcher" begins the same way, with Nancy (Karen Wray) waiting on a park bench to be abducted by a homicidal maniac she has been trying to find, the Butcher (aka Bill, played by Derek Long). Bill has already killed 11 women in the small Texas town where the action is set, but apparently is a little inept. He nearly chokes himself with the chloroform handkerchief he has prepared for Nancy.
With this humorous encounter, "Catching the Butcher" begins (we won't say how it ends) but from the first moments it is clear we aren't to take the play too seriously. Then, in the second scene, with Nancy bound up and Bill laying out his implements of torture and death (including a couple of bone saws) it becomes very serious indeed, except for the fact that Nancy doesn't mind: Indeed, she even encourages the Butcher, whom she gets talking, finding out details about him including his name. Her biggest problem is that she needs to use the bathroom, and when Bill leaves her alone she manages to escape and do just that, returning afterwards.

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