Review: “The Exterminators”: Two Characters, Doing the Numbers; or, Two Gasmasks, One Spraypack
The Exterminators Written and directed by Maxwell Eberle Presented in association with Center for Theatre Research at Center for Theatre Research 13 West 17th St., Manhattan, NYC March 17-22, 2026 Auryn Rothwell and Yousuf Shah. Photo credit: Geve. Often what is most disconcerting is not that which is seen, but what transpires out of sight. The unseemly unseen. In The Weird and the Eerie , Mark Fisher describes the eerie as emerging from questions of agency, when something appears where it should not be, or is absent where it should be. Maxwell Eberle’s new play, The Exterminators , locates that specific brand of the uncanny in a subterranean extermination prep chamber where death is a constant, procedural and concealed. The question is not what is being killed, but how one learns how to participate in the killing. Eberle’s staging renders that process with stark visual economy: two lockers, two masks, two jumpsuits, and a single spraypack. From the outset, hierarchy is ...