Full Length, Black Comedy Characters: 3 male, 2 female Interior Set This exciting first play by the author of August: Osage County premiered at Chicago’s Steppenwolf before going on to acclaimed productions in London and New York. Hired by the dissolute Smith family to murder the matriarch for insurance money, Killer Joe takes the daughter to bed as a retainer against his final payoff which sets in motion a bloody aftermath as the hit man meets his match. Set in Dallas, Killer Joe revels in its white trash stereotypes, and gives you permission to do the same; it’s pulp fiction which has it both ways, deriving humor from dirty realism. It’s slick, it’s well constructed, it knows exactly where it’s going. -New York Daily News