LEO K THEATRE
Murderers
by Jeffrey Hatcher
Directed by Steven Dietz
October 4 – November 4, 2007
Running Time: 100 minutes, no intermission

A CRASH COURSE

Gerald, Lucy, and Minka are all murderers, residents of the Riddle Key Retirement Community in Florida. That they committed murder is not in question, but as for why...
In the slightly askew imagination of playwright Jeffrey Hatcher (Tuesdays with Morrie) wickedness turns up in unlikely guises. As the body count rises, the homicidal humor disguises an intriguing bit of subversion: the idea that some people might deserve to be taken out. Hatcher’s keen sense of the ridiculous thrives among the golf carts, cul de sacs and cocktail parties in this ultimately charming, and very funny, evening of crime.

About the Playwright

Jeffrey Hatcher's plays have been produced by major theatres in the U.S. and abroad. His newest plays are A Picasso, an adaptation on Kaufman and Hart's The Fabulous Invalid, and the book for the Jerome Kern musical Never Gonna Dance (Broadway 2003). For film, he has written Compleat Female Stage Beauty (directed by Richard Eyre), based on his play, and Georgiana, based on the biography of the Duchess of Devonshire. Other recent plays include Hanging Lord Haw-Haw, What Corbin Knew and Sockdology, which won the 1998 New Dramatists Whitfield-Cooke Prize. Seattle Rep produced Hatcher’s adaptation of Tuesdays with Morrie in 2004.

Why You Should See This Play

Oddly enough, murder is a ripe and frequently visited topic for comedy. From Arsenic and Old Lace to Heathers, from Agatha Christie’s tongue in cheek mysteries to Grosse Pointe Blank, writers have found riches in mining the most horrible of crimes for its macabre humor. In Murderers, Jeffrey Hatcher adds the quirky hothouse that is a Florida retirement community to the mix, using it as the setting for his play with hilarious results. Paired with Hatcher is director Steven Dietz, himself a renowned playwright (God’s Country, Lonely Planet) and sometime Seattle resident, whose own sublimely off-center sense of humor rivals the author’s. Completing the artistic team are two of Seattle’s favorite comic actors, Sarah Rudinoff and Mark Anders, and new to Seattle stage veteran Joan Porter Hollander. As Seattle enters the fall season, and days are shorter (and cloudier), Murderers will transport you to sunny Florida, where the darkness (and the laughter) is in…the deed.

Now, enjoy a little dollar-store doll dramatic reenactment of methods of murder... not necessarily what you'll find in Murderers, but it'll get you in the mood. (photos by Joanna Horowitz, art direction by Francesca Restropo)