The authors mother is responsible for the above quote. She is also a playwright and once commented that in her work she tries to remain upbeat and funny almost by way of compensation for her sons work! This example of son Tracys writing has comic moments, but generally delivers on the maternal assessment its savage, disturbing and sometimes downright frightening, with a last beat which makes the final scene of Hamlet resemble a small family squabble.
The plot is set spinning within the first few minutes, Letts taking little time setting the scene. That scene is a trailer in a Texas park inhabited by the revolting Smith family. Young Chris Smith (Ed Weeks) needs to get hold of $6000 or his creditors will kill him. With his father Ansel he decides to murder his mother for what, he has been told, is a sizeable life insurance policy. They agree to hire Joe Cooper, a police detective with a sideline in contract killing.
Tony Law is suitably still and menacing as Killer Joe, whose arrival embroils the entire family in a sordid pact involving lies, rape, violence and a particularly heart-breaking and disturbing betrayal of the young daughter Dottie (a beautifully truthful performance from Charlotte Joe Hanbury). Letts wrote this play in 1991 when he a was a confessed alcoholic and its action and language is full of a desperate rage, which Maggie Inchleys direction ramps up to fever pitch. However, some of the latter action was sloppy, and under rehearsed, and a vital prop failing to function properly in the final moments nearly reduced proceedings to farce.
This show is performed by the Comedians Theatre Company who brought us last years over hyped and overrated Talk Radio. This is far superior. For the most part the acting is fine, though it is the women in the cast who really shine, Lizzie Roper providing a brash, though ultimately terrified and terrifying performance as Sharla, the step-mother. Its interesting that she and Hanbury are the two performers with an acting rather than comedy pedigree. Im afraid it does show, not least in their ability to know when the focus is not on them.
That said, this is a truly wonderful play, inhabiting Tennessee Williams territory both geographically and emotionally, and this production is worth seeing for the committed performances and writing that is sometimes brilliant in its simplicity:
Nothings worse that regrets, not cancer, not being eaten by a shark.
