Review Roundup: La Jolla Playhouse's KILL LOCAL

Sheila and her sister Abigail work for their mother's small family business. Sheila's job used to be a source of joy and exhilaration; now she's questioning everything. But when you're an assassin, being uninspired means getting sloppy, and getting sloppy means getting killed. Kill Local is a pitch-black comedy about blood ties, revenge and trying to get unstuck - especially when your life is dedicated to ending others'.

Kill Local received its first reading as part of the Playhouse's acclaimed DNA New Work Series, which offers playwrights the opportunity to develop a script and receive valuable audience feedback.

Several mainstage Playhouse productions have been developed through the DNA New Work Series, including Miss You Like Hell, The Last Tiger in Haiti, Blueprints to Freedom, The Who & The What and Chasing the Song.

Let's see what the critics have to say!

BroadwayWorld (E.H. Reiter): The play has some blood and gore, and the plastic sheet as a curtain is the first sign this is not your average show. For those that are squeamish or don't appreciate a Coen brothers mix of comedy and violence this may not be for you. All of the characters in this dark comedy are richly layered, and deeply broken; it just depends on how those pieces fell to become the people they are at the time of this story. This play is dark, violent, and very funny as it explores family ties, revenge, redemption, the difficulty of change.

Times of San Diego (Pat Launer): The first scene is a stunner. On an upper floor of a high-rise building still under construction, a man hangs by his wrists over a pit of sorts (perilously close to a wheelbarrow full of concrete), swinging, complaining, cajoling and begging for his life, as a woman with her back to him focuses on her cellphone (she's ordering takeout from Chipotle) and keeps her firearm close. We know he'll be the first to go. He certainly won't be the last.

San Diego Tribune (Pam Kragen): The hilarious and oddball CAndy Buckley brings the play to another level as Gloria, Sheila's hardened and manipulative murderess mom. Xochitl Romero is plucky and bookish as Sheila's younger sister Abi, the brainy employee who handles surveillance and strategy. And twitchy Carolyn Braver plays Ami, a mysterious high school student who happens upon the crime scene with disastrous results.

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