Catch the Butcher
Description
Fascinated by a serial killer’s poems to his victims, Nancy sets out to find him. When she discovers herself in his basement, she likes it.
Production Info
Full Length Dark Comedy (about 90 minutes)
Minimal Set Requirements
Contemporary Costumes
Press Quotes
“… Adam Seidel’s serio-comic CATCH THE BUTCHER … evoke[s] both the dank confines of Hannibal Lecter’s cell in The Silence of the Lambs and the fireplace textures of 1960s suburban homes. Both environments, literally or figuratively, can be prisons, which is only appropriate for this quirky, unsettling and rewarding play. Strains of the country ditty ‘All My Ex’s Live in Texas’ … conjure the location. Nancy, a single woman, sits on a park bench before she is chloroformed and kidnapped by Bill, a fastidious serial killer. Awakening in his basement lair, she finds him with accessories familiar to fans of Dexter and the Hostel movies: an industrial apron and a cabinet full of chemicals and surgical instruments. Bill intends to kill her, but she enchants him with her admiration for the poems he composes and leaves with his victims. It turns out she intentionally positioned herself as bait. The bond between the lonely Nancy and the broody Bill evolves into love and, briefly, a kind of conservative domestic bliss: She cleans house and cooks, while he goes to work (he’s a doctor) and returns to read the newspaper, have a martini and be doted on. But Nancy grows bored, and reaches out to their neighbor Joanne, whom she invites over, against Bill’s wishes, for supper. Bill, a control freak is not pleased … [An] effective blend of romance, absurdism, satire and dread …” —Andy Webster, The New York Times
“Truly hilarious! CATCH THE BUTCHER is killer in all senses of the word.” —Talkin’ Broadway
“A creepy, funny, macabre love story.” —Curtain Up
Author
Adam SeidelAdam Seidel is a Milwaukee-born playwright. His produced full-length works include CATCH THE BUTCHER (Panndora Productions, Cherry Lane Theatre NYT Critic's Pick, Illysia Volanakis, Athens GR), OTHER PEOPLE'S HAPPINESS (Playhouse on the Square, Memphis), WILLISTON (Miranda Theatre Company feat Robert LuPone, Detroit Repertory Theater) and ORIGINAL SOUND (Cherry Lane Theatre — Theatre Mania Editor's Pick). Adam's co-writing/devised-theatre credits include CRIME SCENE: A CHICAGO ANTHOLOGY (Collaboraction Theatre Company), CRIME SCENE: THE NEXT CHAPTER (Collaboraction Theatre Company) and FORGOTTEN FUTURE (Collaboraction Theatre Company). Adam's plays have won many awards, including a Chicago "Fringe First," first place at both the Labute Festival of New Theatre and New Works @ The Works at Playhouse on the Square in Memphis, and a handful of audience favorite awards at various ten-minute play festivals around the country. Adam's plays are published by Broadway Play Publishing Inc and Applause Books.
Book Information
| Publisher | BPPI |
|---|---|
| Publication Date | 3/5/2018 |
| Pages | 74 |
| ISBN | 9780881457551 |
Special Notes
CATCH THE BUTCHER was first produced by Panndora Productions
at the Long Beach Playhouse in 2013
It received its Off-Broadway premiere
at the Cherry Lane Theatre in 2015
by special arrangement with Broadway Play Publishing Inc, NYC
www.broadwayplaypublishing.com
Production Stills
