The Smith family hatches a plan to murder their estranged matriarch for the insurance money. They hire Joe Cooper, a police detective and part-time contract killer, to do the job. But once he enters their trailer home and comes face to face with Dottie, their innocent daughter, the plan spirals out of control… Tracy Letts' play Killer Joe is a tense thriller originally seen at the Next Lab in Evanston, Illinois, in 1993, before runs in New York, Edinburgh and the West End. The play was revived at the Trafalgar Studios, London, in 2018, featuring Orlando Bloom as Killer Joe Cooper. Tracy Letts is a playwright, director, actor and ensemble member of Steppenwolf Theatre Company. He won the Pulitzer Prize for Drama for August: Osage County, and his other plays include Bug and Mary Page Marlowe. 'Letts displays such complete assurance in manipulating the sheer gothic macabre of his material that it's practically wicked to watch… Killer Joe hits like a sharp splash of ice-cold water, and it's supposed to make you squirm' The Arts Desk'An exercise in Texan trailer-park Gothic, Killer Joe rams sickening horror and outrageous humour together as it pulls us into the morally stunted world of the American underclass' Independent'Keeps you hooked from the outset... cleverly plotted and queasily gripping, Letts's play offers a prophetic portrait of a society that, in its reliance on the small screen, is in danger of entertaining itself to death' Guardian (2018)'Fiercely disturbing, Killer Joe never loses its power to hold your attention' WhatsOnStage'A tense, gut-twisting thriller ride in the theatre. An astonishing piece of work' Chicago Tribune'A brilliant play' Guardian'An immensely entertaining pop artifact. Written with neon-lit flamboyance' New York Times