Director's Comments

Killer Joe

The role of violence in our society is as prevalent today as it ever has been. We are bombarded with images of atrocities that men do against men. It is throughout our television shows, on the news, and in our theatre. We face the spectacle of ourselves everyday. The play Killer Joe, by Tracy Letts, explores the reason violence comes to us with such ease.

So why should we try to bring this world to life? Does it apply to the audience who comes and sees it? Yes. The ease of violence in our society is prevalent on T.V. and on stage. The audience can see a man’s head chopped off on the Soprano’s, and we’ve come to accept it. But a lady takes her top off and we censor it for nudity. These issues will be placed into the audience’s lap without the benefit of a remote to turn the channel. The violence and nudity are real and uncompromised.

So this play has to have the edge of violence, but we must challenge the audience to see the relationships within the family, find the bond that keeps the family together in that trailer, and make sure the audience understands the choices we make.

It’s one of those plays that inspire an actor. The characters are rich with depth and complexities, and yet they are so violent and almost unlovable.

The play is a blend of an early Sam Shepard piece, mixed with qualities of a Jacobean piece. The play embraces its violence. The emotions, energies, actions and violence push the play from one scene to the next.

The irony of the mobile home is that it does not go anywhere. Each home is moved into place and then just sits there until it rots, burns down, or gets knocked over by a tornado. The characters are as mobile as their home. They are locked in place.

This space is a pressure cooker for these characters. They are crammed into this aluminum house. They are forced to be on top of each other; they can’t escape. Movement through the house is difficult. The actor has to have a purpose and be focused on being in the moment. Living in the house is difficult. Nothing is easy for the family. Lighting the stove, getting a beer, turning on the T.V., all become monumental tasks.

The characters are dirty, hungry, achy, and old for their years. Chris entering the house beat up in Act 1 scene 2 brings home the reality that all of the family could get hurt or killed by these men who want Chris. It is also a reminder that there is a killer in their own house. He could very well do the same damage to all of them. There’s a feeling that something could happen at any moment, and it permeates the trailer for the rest of the play after Chris walks in covered in blood. Adele is about to be killed, the killer lives in the trailer, and Chris was almost killed by the people to whom he owes money. There is no comfort left in the home.

Ansel responds in II, 4, to Sharla when she says that Chris only thinks about himself: “Well, that’s all anybody really cares about, isn’t it?” There are obvious connections between this play and T.V. violence but is that the only reason the T.V. is there? The play starts with a T.V. running with only static. Static. Stationary. Not going anywhere. No clear picture. White noise. If Chris doesn’t come up with this plan would Ansel be content to just sit there? Probably. But it is Sharla who gets tired of the static. She’s the one who can’t stand it there and reaches out to another.

This play needs action to push it. The actor must come into every scene with a purpose and an action.

This play is real. It’s dirty, ugly, vituperative, and real. It pushes the audience to look at themselves. Some may find it easy to separate themselves from this particular family and call them White Trash. But that’s too safe, and the play doesn’t let them do that. With the imagery and context of this play no one can escape its message.

I picture the audience watching the characters through two-way glass. When the lights go up, they can see through the mirror and watch this world unfold; but when the play goes dark, the mirror returns, the audience is faced with themselves, and what they have become. This is not a playwrights dream; it’s society’s milieu, and they asked for it.

~ R.W. Smith Director