Killer Joe

Tracy Letts

• Publisher: Theatre Communications Group
• Year: 2014
• Print ISBN:
  9781559364515
• eBook ISBN:
  9781559367585
• Topic: Literature
• Subtopic: American Drama
• Index: Literature

"One of the best American plays of the past quarter century." - Terry Teachout, Wall Street Journal

"An immensely entertaining pop artifact. Written with neon-lit flamboyance." - Vincent Canby, New York Times

"A brilliant play. A major theatrical event." - Michael Billington, Guardian

“A visceral theatre experience of the highest order. For those who like their theatre strong, not tepid, it's immensely gratifying.” –Backstage

The Smith family hatch a plan to murder their estranged matriarch for her insurance money and hire Killer Joe Cooper, a police detective and part-time contract killer, to do the job. Once he enters the trailer, their simple plan spirals out of control. Letts’s unforgettable first play is “a tense, gut-twisting thriller ride” and has been performed in fifteen countries in twelve languages (Chicago Tribune). The film adaptation, released in 2011 and starring Matthew McConaghey, is “written with merciless black humor…one hell of a movie” (Roger Ebert).

Tracy Letts was awarded the 2008 Pulitzer Prize for Drama and Tony Award for Best Play for August: Osage County, which premiered at Steppenwolf Theatre Company in 2007 before playing Broadway, London's National Theatre, and a forty-week US tour. Other plays include Pulitzer Prize finalist Man from Nebraska; Killer Joe, which was adapted into a critically acclaimed film; and Bug, which has played in New York, Chicago, and London and was adapted into a film. Letts is an ensemble member of Steppenwolf Theatre Company and garnered a Tony Award for his performance in the Broadway revival of Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?

ACT TWO

SCENE 1

Lights slowly rise: late at night.

Thunder. Lightning. Footsteps. T-Bone.

Chris unlocks the door, but a metal chain keeps him from opening it. He moans, mutters.

He kicks the door open, snapping the chain off the wall. He staggers inside. His shirt and pants are soaked with blood. One eye is blackened, and blood streams from his nose and mouth.

Suddenly, Joe, naked and holding a gun, grabs Chris’s hair from behind and forces him to the floor.

JOE: ALL RIGHT, GET DOWN THERE NOW! GET DOWN!

CHRIS: I’m sorry! I’m sorry!

(Joe relaxes, foot planted in Chris’s back.)

JOE: Chris . . .

CHRIS: Oh, fuck.

(Sharla, wearing a T-shirt and a pair of men’s underwear, runs in from the hallway. Ansel is behind her.)

SHARLA: What the hell—?

(She turns on the light and Chris’s condition is visible to all of them.)

Good God, what happened—?

ANSEL: You look rough, boy—

JOE: Excuse me.

(Joe exits to Dottie’s bedroom. Sharla and Ansel keep their distance from Chris, examining him from across the room.)

CHRIS: Dad—?

ANSEL: Them old boys caught up to you.

CHRIS: —my hand—

SHARLA: What happened?

CHRIS: I think they broke my hand—

ANSEL: What’d they do to your face—?

CHRIS: I got—

SHARLA: Jesus—

CHRIS: —I got—

ANSEL: You wanna go to the hospital?—

SHARLA: I think he better—

CHRIS: I got beat up—

ANSEL: I can see that—

CHRIS: Oh, God—

(Dottie enters, wearing a robe. She rushes to Chris. Joe emerges again, now wearing a pair of slacks.)

DOTTIE: What happened to you?

CHRIS: Some guys—

DOTTIE (To Sharla): Will you get a wet rag?

CHRIS: —I got beat up—

(Sharla gets a dishrag, soaks it and wrings it out.)

ANSEL: They do all they were goin’ to, or—?

CHRIS: Huh—?

ANSEL: Did they—?

JOE: If they’d wanted to kill him, he’d be dead.

(Sharla gives the dishrag to Dottie, who gently wipes blood from Chris’s face.)

CHRIS: Oh, God—

DOTTIE: Your nose is broken—

JOE: Is that all?

CHRIS: What the fuck, man?—

ANSEL: What’d they say to you?

CHRIS: What the fuck you think they said?

ANSEL: They want their money.

CHRIS: No shit.

SHARLA: You want a beer?

JOE: Where’d they find you?

CHRIS: Wild Bill’s. They jumped me in the parking lot.

ANSEL (Stepping over Chris to turn on TV): D’ja see Bill there?

CHRIS: I don’t . . . I don’t know, why?

ANSEL: He owes me ten bucks.

CHRIS: Christ—

SHARLA: I’m goin’ back to bed—

DOTTIE (To Chris): You sure you don’t wanna go to the hospital?

CHRIS: Yeah, I—

SHARLA: C’mon, Ansel—

DOTTIE: That cut on your head looks pretty deep—

JOE: He’s fine. He just got a whipping.

CHRIS (To Joe): Listen, buddy, I’m—

JOE: No, I’m saying, it could happen to anybody—

ANSEL: We’ll turn in then, I guess—

SHARLA: Ansel, come on—

CHRIS: Just go—

ANSEL: All right—

SHARLA: Good night—

CHRIS: Dottie—

(Sharla exits.)

DOTTIE: You feel any better?—

CHR...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Title Page
• Copyright
• Dedication
• Contents
• Production History
• Characters
• Author’s Notes
• A Note to the Players
• Act One
• Act Two
• About the Author