The setting is the American south, the family poor-white dysfunctional. Chris needs money to pay off drug-dealers and gets his useless dad Ansel to agree to have his estranged wife murdered for insurance money. Ansel's second wife Sharla is in for a share, and his daughter Dottie is simple-minded and improbably virginal.

Chris hires Killer Joe, a corrupt cop who kills for pay, to do the job. Since he can't be paid in advance, he takes Dottie as a retainer. It all goes wrong, and ends in a welter of corpses and distraught survivors. Author Tracey Letts' play does not pull any punches; it offers nudity, murder, simulated fellatio, bondage and sadism among its attractions. It is difficult to say what it is punching at, being hardly a social document, a black comedy or simply a crime drama; whatever, it drowns in its own improbabilities.

Bryan O'Duffy's performance as the ruthless, calculating Joe holds the attention, giving a central core to the play's wayward meanderings. He is well supported by Anthony Fox, Helena Lewin, Lydia Mulvey and Alan Curran, but it is uphill all the way.

Continues until Saturday. Booking on 6081239