The Pillowman – Gate Theatre – Review

The Pillowman – written by Martin McDonagh

When the curtains part and the light goes up on the stage, Katurian (Fra Fee) is alone. He is sitting in a chair at an angle, facing a nondescript table. What is unsettling is that his eyes are covered with a blindfold, but his hands are not bound. There is nothing to stop him from removing the blindfold. This lack of impetus in Katurian encapsulates the multitude of challenges that a person faces when incarcerated for what appears to be no obvious reason in a totalitarian state.

Katurian is a writer of numerous short stories. They often involve children and are frequently gruesome. Katurian is incarcerated because Tupolski (Aidan McArdle), who subsequently describes himself as the good cop, thinks that Katurian is in some manner responsible for the murder of at least two children. The reason for this belief is the similarity of the details of the actual murders and the content of some of the short stories. Katurian is protective of his short stories. There is also a bad cop in the form of Ariel (Julian Moore-Cooke), whose instinct is to resort to violence, which he finds difficult to restrain. Katurian has a special needs brother, Michal (Ryan Dylan), who has also been incarcerated nearby in some other part of the prison. Screams are heard, and Ariel returns to the stage to inform Tupolski that Michal has confessed to murdering three children. Throughout the darkness of what is being revealed, McDonagh lightens it by the use of black humour. The audience duly responds.

The play investigates how Katurian became a writer. He was encouraged by loving parents, but gradually he made discoveries about their true nature, and his stories take on a much darker or sinister tone. There is a weaving of the content of Katurian’s stories with what actually happened. The two are inextricably intertwined. There are at least seven stories, one of which is entitled “The Pillowman”. What brings life to some of the stories is their stylised recreation in mime by actors Jade O’Connor as Mother and Donncha O’Dea as Father, together with child actors. They appear on a smaller raised stage at the back of the main stage, which is an interesting device by Set Designer Alex Eales. The actors are a form of living illustration of the stories. They lighten the intensity of what is being revealed.

Fra Fee and Aidan McArdle, as the principal protagonists, give sterling performances as they respectively convey the vulnerability and the power of their characters.

Prior to this work, Martin McDonagh’s plays were mainly set in Ireland, but this is quite a change in direction. There is a Kafkaesque feel to the work, with the twisted fairytales and also the setting of the grey prison cell, where the prisoner tries to discover his crime.

The play premiered in London in 2003 and on Broadway in 2005, where it was nominated for various Tony awards. It is a play that, at one level, investigates how society treats its children. At another, by use of the stratagems of a totalitarian state, it lays bare the vulnerability of an individual. It is a challenging night at the theatre, but given the increase worldwide of a trend towards totalitarianism, it is timely that its thought-provoking content is aired. It is a serious piece of theatre.

Aidan McArdle in THE PILLOWMAN at the Gate Theatre. Photo Ros Kavanagh

CAST:
CHILD Alexander Bellintani
CHILD Freddy Cornally
MICHAL Ryan Dylan
KATURIAN Fra Fee
CHILD Ruby Gill
TUPOLSKI Aidan McArdle
ARIEL Julian Moore-Cook
MOTHER Jade O’Connor
FATHER Donncha O’Dea
CHILD Ciara O’Sullivan

CREATIVES:
Writer Martin McDonagh
Director Lyndsey Turner
Set Designer Alex Eales
Costume Designer Katie Davenport
Lighting Designer Sinéad McKenna
Sound Designer & Composer Kevin Gleeson
Movement Director Paula O’Reilly
Fight Director Ciaran O’Grady
Casting Consultant Bryony Jarvis-Taylor
Resident Assistant Director Emma Finegan
Voice Director Cathal Quinn
Irish Sign Language consultant and Performance Interpreter  Amanda Coogan