Written in 1993, Killer Joe is a play about the Smiths, a dysfunctional family living in a mobile home in Texas. The family, made up of Chris, a young man with a plan, by his father Ansel, his stepmother Sharla and his younger sister Dottie, are in a delicate financial situation. In a desperate attempt to change their fate, they hire a contract killer, Joe Cooper, to murder Ansel’s ex-wife so they can collect her life insurance policy. Experiencing a decadent and extreme reality, the Smiths will be confronted with a mirror image of themselves and the inevitability of tragedy in a situation that will place them face to face with the consequences of their own decisions. Raw and violent, but equally humorous and radiant, Killer Joe portrays the contemporary reality we live in, of indifference towards the Other, a metaphor for the consequences of social media that could already be anticipated in the 1990s, and for a society ever more self-centred, narcissistic and nihilistic.
Killer Joe
BY TRACY LETTS DIRECTED BY MIGUEL GRAÇA14 to 22 June
Wednesday to Saturday, 7:30 pm; Sunday, 4 pm
Sala Mário Viegas
€12, reduced prices available
To be defined by CCE
Description
Cast and Creative
Text Tracy Letts Translated and directed by Miguel Graça Assistant director Raquel Ferradosa Actors David Esteves, Dinarte Branco, Inês Pereira, Madalena Almeida and Pedro Caeiro Lighting design Daniel Worm D’Assumpção Scenery to be defined Costumes Mia Lourenço Photography Lais Pereira Video Bruno Bernardo Production director Cláudia Teixeira Artistic consultant Victor Gonçalves Supported by Direção Geral das Artes, Escola Profissional de Teatro de Cascais Co-production Urso Pardo, Câmara Municipal de Lagos and São Luiz Teatro Municipal