Customer Reviews

The Pillowman - Acting Edition

5 star:		(34)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

Having been a fan of McDonagh's Leenane Trilogy, I couldn't wait to read his latest. I'd read some glowing reviews from the British premiere but was skeptical. Then, I read the play. While the set up seems from a police procedural, the twists, turns, and utter horror in the play are visceral and compelling.

A writer is being interrogated because the stories he writes often allude to the murder of children in hideous ways; children in the totalitarian state of his residence are now being killed in ways like the ones mentioned in the writer's work. Add to this the writer's mentally impaired brother and occasional acting out of his stories and you have complete, satisfying, darkly humorous and utterly theatrical play. The Pillowman is a beautifully ugly depiction of the the necessity of stories--to pain us, to heal us. It's quite a page-turner!

During my recent visit to London I was privileged to attend a show every one of my thirteen days there. After seeing everything from Taming of the Shrew to Pinter's Betrayal, the only show that made me say, "Wow that was incredible", was McDonough's The Pillowman. I find my self uttering the same phrase after reading a previous review of this amazing play. It's such a shame that people get so caught up in the superficial aspect of art that they fail to understand what makes it art in the first place. Shocking, twisted, dark as it may be, when it comes down to it, The Pillowman has nothing to do with murdering children. Any person with some sense can understand that it's about an artist's responsibility for their work and their protection under freedom of speech laws. Can an artist be held accountable for the feelings their work provokes? What if someone acts on those feelings...who is responsible then? I find it ironic that the very point the playwright is trying to get across mirrors the persecution he is facing now. To everyone... see this play. If you are unable to attend a production that's a shame because it's amazing live, but do the next best thing and pick up the script. It will change you.

The Pillowman (2003) - Martin McDonagh

I will start off by stating that I tend to not like reading plays. However, once in a while, I will come across one that reads well as literature. The Pillowman is definitely one of them. The dialogue is exciting, the plot is most definitely a page-turner, and it is quite funny (in a sadistic way, but more credit to McDonagh for pulling it off). What Mr. McDonagh deals with as his theme is the importance and power and necessity of telling a story, and he presents it in a multi-layered way that is entertaining and clever. Not only is there manipulation of time, but there is also the interesting notion that we are listening to a story of a bunch of characters that like to tell and listen to stories. The overall feel is definitely a little creepy.

McDonagh has a rather unique voice, and although he does not create amazing personalities, his style is entertaining enough on its own; the stylized dialogue is semi-poetic and is interesting to listen to. Let's just say there's a smooth flow to it.

This play is extremely dark and sadistic, yet hilarious in multiple parts (and generally funny thoughout). Balancing this tightrope act is not easy, but I would definitely say McDonagh does a good job of it. This play actually had me laughing out loud at points, which is relatively rare for me when reading plays. For example, even reading translations of Moliere almost never make me laugh, and he is considered arguably the greatest humorist we've ever had. Thus, overall, The Pillowman was a fun read (nothing extremely profound for me), and I would definitely reccomend it.

I'm usually one of those irritating people who insist on reading the text before seeing the play or movie, but I'll admit that this was not the case. In fact, quite the opposite. I had seen the production at the Steppenwolf Theatre in Chicago with it's incredible cast, fell in love with the piece, and consequently had to buy the play.

Martin McDonagh, a prized playwright with a biting and controversial wit for the stage, has absolutely nailed a generation piece with his play, The Pillowman. As anyone in theatre will tell you, it's all about the journey. Katurian has had an interesting journey, and his circumstances proved to be even more interesting at the beginning of the play. The cold, desolate, and unforgiving world he's a part of accuses him of a heinous crime, leaving him thinking it was merely his stories he wrote that encouraged other acts of crime...

He and his brother selectively retell their story through Katurian's stories that act as tiny plays-within-the-play and give the reader / audience member a clearer understanding of the context.

Kind of a side-note, if I may. I was fortunate enough to see the production at the Steppenwolf in Chicago because of my University's Theatre Department that paid for it, and there were about 120 of us that were in the audience that night. The Steppenwolf has a talk-back with the actors that we were very much looking forward to, ready to pick the minds of the actors who were fortunate enough to perform this biting piece.

One of the first questions that the artistic director was faced with from an older audience member was why people were laughing during the show... This sentiment was shared with about 3/4 of the talk-back audience of around 200 or so in the theatre, and the artistic director kind of got the 'deer-in-headlights' look about him as he explained a little about the piece to the patrons. In response to their question, one of our students approached it in the sense of irony and absurdity that ran rampant throughout the text. It's funny because it's so far-fetched, but at the same time so relevant to our generation and society that it was like looking at certain portions of ourselves on stage when looking at the characters.

Another little gem, one of the actors told us in the talk-back, was that one of the original actors playing Katurian had asked during rehearsals if there were more stories where these came from... Martin McDonagh was in the house that evening and told him simply, yes. The next day he brought in all over 200 stories that he based this play on and set them on the stage. Some were typed, some were hand-written, some on napkins and scraps of paper... but they were all there.

The stories are real, the journey that the audience and reader alike experience is real, and in the theatre, you couldn't ask for anything better.

The title of this play makes it seem harmless enough, and to some I'm sure it was very good. However, that being said, if you are not a gore/horror fan, then you might not enjoy this play very much. At least 3 or 4 times throughout the play, a short story is told describing a gruesome murder, and a lot of descriptive adjectives are used to give the reader a mental picture of what is happening. Overall, the story is very good; the plot was well constructed, and I think the story was told in a very unique way. BUT you might want to give it a second thought if you are prone to squeamishness, throwing up, or nightmares.

This is Martin McDonagh's masterpiece---actually, I take that back. I hope he has more and greater works in him for years to come. We need them. This is a superbly theatrical tale that examines the nature and purpose of storytelling. Why do we humans feel it necessary to invent fictious worlds and examine our life not through direct observation of the real but of the invented? And in a land where personal freedoms are virtually nonexistant, how long can the storyteller survive, before he is done away with by the forces of control and order? The blackest black comedy you'll probably ever read, The Pillowman will remain with you forever. Don't just read it, see a production of it when it comes to your town, for surely it will.

The Pillowman is a rare gem of theatric writing; smart without being pompous, funny without downplaying the horror of its setting, and poetically polished. The plot is simple: in a totalitarian state, Katurian Katurian is being interrogated (aka tortured) by the police in regards to a series of child-slayings that match perfectly to his own short stories.

What makes the play so good is the ebb as characters shift in our perceptions. Katurian moves from sympathetic to uncomfortably proud of his petty, splatterpunk-esque fables, and then back again. So too do the two interrogators, who revitalise the usual "bad-cop good-cop" genre. This isn't high-brow literature, however. Though the apparent theme is one of what is 'art' and 'censorship', deeper threads emerge on later thought.

Overall, a thoroughly pleasant read and a taut and well-made play, that - though perhaps not suitable for the whole family - should entertain all but the most flint-faced academic.

Before you read this review you should know that I'm not fond of reading plays. I think the narrative structure of a play is quite inferior to that of a novel when read silently. Despite my misgivings about reading this play, I have to say that I was blwon away. This is one of the most creative works of fiction I have encountered in any form. The stories contained within the story are nearly worth the price of admission alone. This is one of those stories where every little reference carries meaning and every twist has a purpose. It's a little dark and disturbing, but most things this fun tend to turn out that way. And it doesn't hurt that the dialouge is sharp and cool throughout. If you get a chance you should definitely check this out.

Fantastic play, easily one of my favorites. Graphic and edgey, but a must read. Easily the best of his works and he has many other great plays.

I will never forget the day that I was fortunate enough to discover Mr. McDonagh's work of genius, "The Pillowman." I was skulking around a bookstore, looking for something to read in order to kill the time, and I happened to end up in the drama section. I browsed the titles and once I came across this one, I was immediately intrigued. I read the synopsis and I had no choice; I had to buy it. As I sat in my car reading, I was literally pulled into the dark, grim, fantastic, entertaining, and twisted work that I held in my hands. I read it straight through and could not put it down. When I finished, I was, quite simply, breathless.

Summing up such a many-layered work is a sort of injustice, but I shall try, anyway: Katurian's life consists of working at a slaughterhouse, minding his mentally impaired brother, and writing lots of stories...hundreds of them, in fact. It is because of these stories that two police officers become very interested in Mr. Katurian. Unfortunately for him, several children have been murdered in ways that are gruesomely similar to the ones that occur in some of Katurian's fiction. And it is Katurian's wonderfully sadistic stories that become the focal point of the investigation (and the play!), as the officers try to understand the motives for the killings and figure out where the final victim might be. As readers, we are allowed into Katurian's creative world, which includes a few of his short fiction pieces and the black-secret childhood nightmare that inspired what is possibly the greatest short story he has ever written, the titular "Pillowman."

Throughout the narrative (and the performace, too, I am sure), we have the privilege of delving into the full text of some of his stories (among them, the wonderfully twisted and fairy tale-esque "The Tale of the Town on the River") and are given disturbing and intriguing summaries of others ("The Three Gibbet Crossroads," for example). Several of the stories are even written to be acted out as scenes, which are shocking and highly fascinating.

And if all this weren't enough to captivate a reading-audience, there are still questions, both moral and political, that "The Pillowman" asks. Are writers responsible for the content of their work and what that work might inspire others to do? Is it all right for police to resort to brutality to get the vital information they need? Is life truly horrible? Are there times when murder can be viewed as an act of mercy? These are but a few of a smorgasborg of questions that a reader or essayist is confronted with in the play.

As a whole, McDonagh's work is interesting, well-paced, and filled with twists and unpredictable turns that keep it incredibly exciting. The ending, for me, was like a punch to the stomach that I truly didn't see coming. I have recommended it to both family and friends and am always delighted by the different things they notice and the different interpretations they have ("Pillowman" lends itself to many).

I have not read anything THIS GOOD in years. If I could have given it ten stars, I would have gladly done so.
- The Stalwart Pageboy