This review has been taken from my NSDF blog, written for the Peter de Haan Charitable Trust.
Martin McDonagh's The Pillowman is a play about stories and their inherent power. Katurian, a writer, is being held in a police station and questioned by two detectives regarding the mysterious deaths of small children in the town which echo those which appear in his work. Katurian is tortured and imprisoned with his brother Michal, whom has a learning disability, beginning a downward spiral which culminates in both men's physical, but not creative and spiritual, destruction. This production, by Bath Spa University's Passion et la Goire Company, identifies the pitch-blackness of the humour in the show and perform it with assured style. The real crux of the show is undoubtedly McDonagh's razor-sharp script written with Pinter-esque rapier wit, vivid stories and absurdist ideas: with such a text driving a show the direction must follow the same vein. However, the staging of Katurian's stories, their narrative depicted in dumb show behind the author as the tale's teller, broke the closeness of the interrogation exchanges and the intimacy of the brothers. This decision undoubtedly brought more visual humour to a text heavy show but in a play about the power of words to illicit actions this creation of activity would have been better served by the imagination of the audience. Equally, the transitions between scenes and into the interval were under considered. The Pillowman, questionable in its message beyond that of satire - what if people do enact what they read? - is a fine show and with strong central performances from the four core characters, particular praise going to Matthew Johnson's Tupolski, but with some sharp flaws in the language of its staging.
The Pillowman: ***
Image courtesy of Passion et la Gloire.
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