The Killer: Darko Tresnjak revives Eugѐne Ionesco’s classic absurdist work in an epic production.

Last produced off-Broadway in 1960, Eugène Ionesco’s dark, absurdist comedy The Killer has returned to New York in a definitive production at Theatre for a New Audience’s Polonsky Shakespeare Center, in Brooklyn. Darko Tresnjak, the Tony-nominated director of A Gentleman’s Guide to Love and Murder, helms the play, newly translated from the French by Michael Feingold. This extraordinary production, with a top-notch cast led by Michael Shannon, has set the standard for any future staging. Ionesco’s plays are generally considered prime examples of the Theater of the Absurd — a genre that examines themes of human isolation, meaninglessness, and despair by placing quirky characters in bizarre, often comical situations. The uproariously funny The Killer falls squarely into that tradition, focusing on Ionesco’s own preoccupations with mindless conformity, self-delusion, and death, themes that resonate strongly throughout The Killer.