Get Out: The Murderers @ Seattle Rep

It's not often that a play comes along that unites both senior citizens and the people who want to kill them. If your parents are elderly, this may strike you as "fair and balanced" theatre.

Seattle Rep's The Murderers also unites the talents of "highly respectable playwright" Jeffrey Hatcher and respectability's opposite in many ways, actress Sarah Rudinoff. Her character Minka says about killing: "You do it once, it just gets easier and easier -- like bicycle riding or sex." The Seattle Times calls the goings-on "a kinkier Murder, She Wrote."

Talkin' Broadway sums it up like this:

Hatcher has a lot of fun mocking the American Way of Waiting For Death, and his three protagonists (only one of whom is retired) play with the stereotypes of the elderly in unexpected ways. The citizens of Riddle Key may move a little slowly, but they haven't lost a step mentally - and woe to the youngsters who try to pull a fast one on them.

Murderers also plays with the conventions of the mystery genre. The three stories are told directly to the audience by the murderers themselves, so the fun is not in solving the crimes but in seeing how the plots are concocted and how those plots (sometimes) fall apart. It's not unlike seeing some of the best episodes of Columbo - a series that Hatcher wrote for.

Tues-Sun, through November 4 // Seattle Rep // Tickets $10-$40

Photo: Sarah Rudinoff as Minka in Jeffrey Hatcher’s Murderers. Photo copyright Chris Bennion 2007.