Thurs. Sept. 29 & Fri Sept. 30

Remember Jack Henry Abbott? The convicted Killer, thought to be a literary light and championed for release by Norman Mailer? Abbot killed again upon release. It wasn’t the first time this kind of thing happened, and it’s the case of Austrian sociopathic serial killer Jack Unterweger which is at the crux of John Malkovich’s one-man play. Its called “The Infernal Comedy: Confessions of a Serial Killer,” and plays at the Cutler Majestic Theatre two nights, Thursday Sept. 29 and Friday Sept. 30. The play was first done in California in 2008, then Vienna in 2099 and in London earlier this year. Now, Malkovich brings it back home. (He is after all a Cantabridgian.) The actor calls his character “a bad, bad guy.” How does he find us? Easy. Writer-director Michael Sturminger has him coming back from the grave (in hell?) for an autobiographical book tour.
   Ya think Malkovich can play bad? Oh yeah. Let’s see: “Dangerous Liasons,” “In the Line of Fire,” “Shadow of the Vampire,” to name but three. I’m am anxiously awaiting how Malkovich assumes this character.
  This is a one-man play, but Malkovich is not only guy you’ll see and hear. Musica Angelica Baroque Orchestra Los Angeles and soparanos Sophie Klussmann and Claire Meghnagi break up the monologues, with music from Vivaldi, Haydn, Mozart and others. This has being called “darkly comic” and “other times bleak and brutal.”
     Malkovich you know – he’s been in more than 65 films, won an Obie and an Emmy and, of course, played the lead in 1999’s “Being John Malkovich.” He’s an actor of many moods and expressions, and frankly, we can’t think of anyone we’d rather see get deep into the mind of a serial killer … who was also a journalist. That’s right.
   He was convicted in 1974 to life in prison, which in Austria means 25 years with 15 on parole. In prison, he became a writer – poems, stories, plays, an autobiography, which was made into a movie. Austrian intellectuals championed his release and he got it 15 years after conviction (the minimum).
   It seems that Unterweger killed six Austrian prostitutes his first year of release. No one knew that. In 1991, he was hired by an Austrian magazine to write about the differences in toward prostitution in the US and Europe. While he was in LA, three more prostitutes were beaten, sexually assaulted and strangled with their bras, Unterweger’s m.o. it would seem. Between 1990 and 1993, his body count was 11.
   The law finally gathered evidence, but Unterweger was in flight. He was chased through Europe and North America. The FBI finally nabbed him in Miami in 1992. He was tried in Austria, convicted without possibility of parole. And, so he hanged himself, reportedly using the same intricate knot he used on his victims. Nice touch. Use what you know.
     Earlier this year, Malkovich told England’s Guardian that he found Unterweger "haunting and tragic. I can find him so touching that I can't even talk when I get on stage," he said. The play, he said, was a "lesson in being careful about what you wish for. It is a cautionary tale about where our projected fantasies of redemption hurl themselves, out into the night, not knowing if the ground is 10 inches below or 200 storus. I'd be shocked if those who supported him haven't shown some remorse."
Bad news for those who don’t have tickets yet. As of this writing, there are just a few remaining. There are, however, those ticket resale outlets and Craigslist posters, where we found a few. Happy hunting.

Starts at 8.

219 Tremont St., $195-$25 617-824-8400 www.artsemerson.org