Preview: A Brief History of Murder

With the final Saturday Night Saloon of the season over and done with (and man, what a freakin' blast) and with The Little One still several months away, it's time for me to shamelessly plug someone else's work on this site.

Opening this Thursday at the Brick Theater is Richard Lovejoy's latest epic, A Brief History of Murder, directed by Ivanna Cullinan. It's actually two plays - Part One: The Detectives and Part Two: The Victims - that cover the same story/chronology from different perspectives.

A Brief History of Murder is concerned with a series of bizarre, brutal murders in a small Oklahoma town. The Detectives centers on a private investigator and her colleagues in the police department working to track the killer, or killers, down. The Victims deals with residents of the town and their connection to the murders and the events behind them. Both deal with some really, really freaky shit related to the murders. There ain't any kind of, "I needed to get my hands on the victim's will and change it," motives going on here.

I've read early drafts of these interconnected shows and am very much looking forward to seeing them (and since the Web site promises "graphic nudity and gore," I'm doubly sure to be there). I'm of course also excited to see these shows because they're the follow-up to Lovejoy's Adventure Quest, which was one of the best plays I saw last year.

In sound-byte terms, the two pieces remind me what would have happened if David Lynch rewrote and directed the third season of Buffy the Vampire Slayer (the season where the Mayor is the Big Baddie, for those of you who are blanking). Only, y'know, not safe for network television (or basic cable, for that matter).

Yes, there's some freaky shit going on in these shows.

Both plays are independent of each other and can be seen separately or together, and in either order. I think seeing both (it doesn't matter if you see The Detectives or The Victims first) offers a better level of understanding of the overall story: the two plays (at least, the drafts I've read) complement and inform each other. Lovejoy talks a bit more about this ambitious project with Matt Freeman here.

A Brief History of Murder plays at the Brick Theatre in Williamsburg from Jan. 14-31. You can get tickets here. There's also a special ticket package that lets you see both shows for $25.

Never going into the woods again,

James "Mayor" Comtois