Prolific American playwright Jeffrey Hatcher, a Denison alumnus from the class of 1980, is receiving positive notices for his 2008 play, "Murderers."

The play, produced by Contemporary American Theatre Company, is running at the Riffe Center in downtown Columbus, Ohio, through October 18. The setting for this dark comedy is a Florida retirement community. The personalities of three characters who live or work there -- all of whom are murderers -- are examined in a hilarious and sometimes irreverent manner.

Of Hatcher, who is now based in Minnesota, Columbus Dispatch reviewer Michael Grossberg writes, " ... his dark comedy brims with humor, irony, mordant observation, revealing character and absorbing narrative." Grossberg continues, "Hatcher clearly loves murder mysteries, and he weaves that affection and calculated deviousness into each part of his puzzle to create a more satisfying and unnerving whole."

Read the entire review here.

Geoff Nelson, artistic director of the Contemporary American Theater Company, was recently interviewed about about Hatcher and "Murderers" by Joy Reilly, theater critic for WOSU radio.

Listen to the interview here.

Coincidentally, Hatcher has two plays in production in the Pittsburgh area this fall. "Ella" (2008), a bio-musical about jazz legend Ella Fitzgerald, is currently playing and will run through Nov. 1 at the O'Reilly Theater. Hatcher's adaptation, "Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde" (2007), will open at the City Theatre on Oct. 17 and run through Nov. 8.

Read more about the Pittsburgh productions here.

The author of more than 50 stage plays, including important works such as "Compleat Female Stage Beauty," "Three Viewings," "A Picasso," "Murder by Poe" and a stage adaptation of Henry James's "The Turn of the Screw," the Steubenville, Ohio, native also has written or collaborated in several film and television projects.