at the Emporikon Theater
A drug dealer deep in debt asks a Texas police detective—a modern-day Southern cowboy who supplements his income as a professional hitman— to kill his mother so that he, his younger sister, his father, and his stepmother can collect the life insurance payout. Since he cannot afford an advance payment for the murder, the detective asks for his younger sister as collateral, and he, with his father’s consent, agrees to hand her over.
At the end of the 20th century, the collapse of the American dream and the tragedy of capitalist utopia inspired Tracy Letts to write the play “ Killer Joe ”. Deeply influenced by the marginal American South, his political and social gaze encounters the underprivileged class, the trailer people, who have the derogatory nickname of trailertrash (“trailer trash”).
Without “idealizing” poverty through elements of humanity, virtue, self-sacrifice, and nobility, Letts writes a brutal play exploring the pathology of a dysfunctional family. Drawing on elements of black comedy and the thriller genre, and influenced by Tennessee Williams and William Faulkner, he brings to the forefront a world that is violent, vulgar, and relentlessly harsh.
In his directorial debut, Yannis Stankoglou brings “Killer Joe” to the stage, supported by a cast of exceptional actors: Kostas Nikouli, Natalia Swift, Dimitra Limniou, and Konstantinos Seirakis.
