Review: Killer Joe at Hyde Park Theatre

And don’t count on the violence and mayhem being inferred from offstage—oh, there’s a bit of that, but mostly it's full frontal fucked-upedness, right there, under the spotlight, plenty too close for comfort given the intimate confines that make nearly every productions at HPT virtually free of the fourth wall.

Tracy Letts, who wrote the play, is a theatrical heavy. He’s an actor-playwright with, among other accolades, a Tony and a Pulitzer to his name. Killer Joe, his first major success, was penned in 1991. It features the Smiths—Ansel (Joe Reynolds), his young spitfire second wife, Sharla (Katie DeBuys), his twenty-two year-old son Chris (Joey Hood), and his twenty year-old daughter, Dottie (Melissa Recalde) who at certain turns presents as mentally challenged and others as the most sage of the lot of ‘em. Killer Joe Cooper (Kenneth Wayne Bradley) is retained to—let’s just say assist in an insurance matter. The Smiths, cash-shy, offer Dottie as a retainer, one which Killer Joe dips into quicker than you can say, "'Scuse me Joe, that is IN-ah-prop-ree-at!" For her part, Dottie is spared from fully comprehending her role by the onset of some super fast and super creepy Stockholm Syndrome working in tandem with the aforementioned pre-existing mental challenges.

The plot unfolds, and then it unfolds some more, with enough red herrings to keep most folks guessing until the end. It is interesting to contemplate how the play, with its romp through just about every trailer trash stereotype save for incest (and given what else happens, even that would probably muster much of a shock response), manages to get away with such. If, say, similar stereotypes were trotted out about a minority group, the whole show would wind up at Fail Blog. But White Trash is still fair game, one of the few arenas left where it’s “safe” to still bash. And really, what are the odds that some genuine trailer trash is going to see the show and start a Stop The Killer Joe Lies About Trailer Trash club on Facebook?

It bears repeating: Killer Joe is excellently produced, astonishingly acted, and impeccably directed. DeBuys' shrieking and conniving and ultimate victimization are sickeningly believable. Reynolds—making his Austin debut—is a highly welcome addition to this city’s stages. Recalde has a tough, taut rope to balance as the semi-daft Dottie, which she manages with grace. Hood, last seen in HPT’s Bombs in Your Mouth, is great as the bumbler with the sure-to-fail get-rich-quick-scheme. And Bradley is so believable as a sociopath in this role that he risks future typecasting—he is, as Joe, utterly bu-bu-bu-bad to the boner.

Just make sure you have nerves of steel for this one. And maybe bring your anxiety meds.

Killer Joe plays through June 27 at Hyde Park Theatre.