Killer Joe

The first new show of our season — Tracey Letts''Killer Joe' —opened in January 2011. It is a combination of intellectual thriller and dark comedy in the style of Quentin Tarantino. This show continues our relationship with the famous Bulgarian director Javor Gardev, who staged his first show with us last season —'The Gronholm Method.' This was the first-ever production of a play by the Spanish playwright Jordi Galceran in Russia. Galceran himself said this was the best production he had ever seen of this play, which has been performed all over the world.'The Gronholm Method' took two Moskovsky Komsomolets prizes, one of which was Best Production.

In'Killer Joe' Javor Gardev again appears as pioneer, since the work of Tracey Letts in terra incognita for Russian spectators. The cast includes two actors who have collaborated with the Theatre of Nations in the past — Yulia Peresild, Alexander Novin — and also Yelena Morozova, Vitaly Khaev and Andrei Fomin. Russians know all these actors well for their work in film.

Gardev worked with his longtime partners, the designer Nikola Toromanov and the composer Kalin Nikolov, both of whom are also from Bulgaria.

Tracy Letts, according to the website of Steppenwolf Theater where he is an ensemble member, has been in the theater's company since 2002 and performed in such productions as 'Betrayal, “The Pillowman“, “Last of the Boys“, “The Pain and the Itch“, “The Dresser“, “Homebody/Kabul“, „The Dazzle”, „Glengarry Glen Ross'” (also in Dublin and Toronto), „Three Days of Rain”, „Road to Nirvana”, „Picasso at the Lapin Agile' and the Steppenwolf for Young Adults production of 'The Glass Menagerie'” (1988). He was awarded the 2008 Pulitzer Prize for Drama and Tony Award for Best Play for'August: Osage County' which was premiered at Steppenwolf in 2007, was played on Broadway and London's National Theatre and is currently taking a 40-week U.  S. tour. Other writing credits include'Man from Nebraska,' which was produced at Steppenwolf in 2003 and was a finalist for a Pulitzer Prize;'Killer Joe,' which has been produced in Chicago, London and New York; and “Bug”, which has been played in New York, Chicago and London. Letts is from Oklahoma and he writes about ordinary Americans who find themselves in difficult situations. One critic wrote:'Letts does not hide his Chekhovian and Faulknerian roots. On the contrary, he demonstrates a fine command of the arsenal of dramatic and linguistic devices of both authors.'

As has been reported in the press, Voltage Pictures began filming a movie based on 'Killer Joe' in New Orleans in November 2010. It is to star Matthew McConaughey and Emile Hirsch and is to be directed by William Friedkin. It tells the story of how a brother and sister decide to kill their mother in order to get her life insurance. In order to do that, they hire a killer named Joe, who also happens to be a policeman.

“There are not many playwrights who are capable of speaking to us in an accessible and joyous voice, but who at the same time imperceptibly explore the darkness and complexity of human nature”.
Metro Weekly