When a family of trailer-dwelling low-lifes find themselves in need of cash, they think of mom and her alluring life insurance policy. The family, reasons son Chris, would be better off without her.

Enter Killer Joe Cooper, the focus of Tracy Letts' dark comedy "Killer Joe," the latest offering from producer Amber Kelly's Theater of Thought.

Letts, whose "August: Osage County" won the 2008 Pulitzer, has produced a tight, quirky play with twists of plot and enough violence to satisfy any Quentin Tarantino fan.
Joe, it turns out, is a Dallas police detective who moonlights as a hit man. The proposition before him seems simple enough: rub out the unseen mom and split a $50,000 insurance pay out. But we're not talking brain surgeons here, and whatever could go wrong, does.

What is perhaps most intriguing about this low-budget production, though, is Kelly's set. She's into site-specific theater, or staging plays in the settings for which they were written. And since "Killer Joe" takes place in a trailer, Kelly, who directs the play with Mathew Fraza, went out a found a 22-foot camper on Craigslist, peeled off the roof and side, and placed it at a loading dock at a vacant mill building on Eagle Street.

Chairs are set up facing the open side of the trailer, and the audience gets to peer into this dysfunctional, often grisly world of Letts', amid faded curtains and piled-high dishes.

Joe Ouellette stars as Joe, a crazed manipulator who, when Chris and father Ansel don't have a down payment for the hit, insists on 20-year-old sister Dottie as a "retainer." Ouellette's Joe is both likable and scary. He's a brute who gets his way, who sets the rules and somehow lands on his feet.

At first Kelly's Dottie seems almost too dimwitted, speaking in flat, halting bursts with a true Texas twang. But we soon learn she is brighter than we suspect. In a way, it is the strange relationship between Dottie and Joe that holds this suspenseful play together.

Rae Mancini is terrific as Sharla, Chris' conniving stepmother. She showed up toward the end of the show in a gauzy see-through blouse looking wonderfully tarty.

Brien Lang's Ansel is kind of a lost soul who gets caught up in a plan he can't quite control, and Josh Short plays Chris, who is conflicted about offering up his sister as a down payment and tries to weasel out of the deal with Joe.

Again, there's a lot of violence in this show, which also has its share of laughs, if for no other reason than Letts' quirky redneck humor. If you're up for sitting out under the stars and don't mind the sound of growling motorcycles, "Killer Joe" makes for an entertaining night of theater.

Performances of "Killer Joe" take place Friday and Saturday at 8:30 at 25 Eagle St., Providence. Tickets are $25-$18. For reservations, log on to www.theaterofthought.com.