Having seen a read through of The Pillowman last year I was familiar with the story, however seeing it acted out on a fully dressed set with intercut story pieces was a much more visceral, and at times funny affair. Like most of Martin McDonagh’s work the subject matter is deeply dark and very funny. It seems a shortcoming to say it’s black comedy because it seems so much more, more black, more funny, more twisted, an intangible quality is present – the umami of the writing.
The Pillowman is about a writer in a totalitarian regime who writes little fairy tales, often of murder, that are coming true and of course he is the number one suspect. He is being interrogated ‘Good cop, Bad cop’ style whilst his brain damaged brother is being held, and tortured in an adjourning cell. This is a story about stories, about how we can be detached from the stories we tell, about how dangerous they can be, about freedom of speech and press and state interference and… admittedly there’s a lot going on. However the questions raised never get in the way of the story, or the stories – we get questions about these things but there’s very little preaching about right and wrong.
The language, as is the trademark of both McDonagh brothers, is tremendous; wordy and clever but never feeling forced. The performances of our central four characters (two cops and the two brothers) must be commended and all are stand out, making such long and intricate passages sound normal and natural at times seems like the challenge of performing Shakespeare in the modern tongue. The set is stark and claustrophobic but at times the little interrogation room we spend most of our time in seperates to makes way for real life recreations of the short stories in the play. The Pillowman is a thought provoking, funny and twisted piece of work…I loved every second of it! It is, however, not for the faint hearted.
This is an excellent production of a tremendous play by Martin McDonagh, Decadent Theatre and The Lyric. Hats off to them and keep ‘em coming.
The Pillowman runs from 24 March 2015 – 19 April 2015 at The Lyric Theatre, Belfast.
