|
Magic Theatre
Sex, violence, murder-for-hire —modern American angst once again camps out at Magic Theatre in the revival of Marin Theatre Company’s early 2006 hit, Killer Joe. The entire cast from the original North Bay production performs in San Francisco’s version of a graphic, intense thriller open to mature audiences only.
“In 1970 when I brought One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest to San Francisco, it was cutting edge theater of the time,” said Killer Joe producer and director Lee Sankowich, who recently stepped down as artistic director of Marin Theatre Company. “Killer Joe is [cutting edge] for the new millennium. Not since Cuckoo’s Nest have I been as excited about a play.”
 The New York Times described Killer Joe as “white trash gothic with a comic book spin, a sort of ‘Tobacco Road’ according to Wes Craven.” Written by Tracy Letts, the disturbing comedy focuses on the Smith clan — lowlifes holed up in a seedy Dallas trailer park. A drug-dealing loser named Chris dreams up a half-baked, get-rich-quick scheme to hire a hit man to kill his mother for $50,000 in insurance money.
Chris’ greedy father and low-rent step mom go along with the plot but get more than they bargained for when they hire Killer Joe Cooper, an extremely scary police detective and part-time assassin. Joe has his own desires and one of them is Chris’ mentally impaired sister Dottie, who becomes the down payment on the deal. The play’s shocking climax is a Grand Guignol of blood, violence, mayhem, and despair.
San Francisco Chronicle theater critic Robert Hurwitt gave Marin Theatre Company’s production of Killer Joe a standing ovation in his January 19, 2006 review: “Sankowich and his accomplished cast find new layers of stunted humanity and even empathy in the tale.”
Add a little sleaze, noir, and pulp fiction to your life this summer with the ballad of Killer Joe. For more information, see July 1 and www.killerjoesf.com.
— Claudia Willen
Photos: Ed Smith |
