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The Pillowman
By Martin McDonagh
Directed by Amy Morton
At Steppenwolf Theatre
1650 N. Halsted
Chicago, IL
Call 312-335-1650, tickets $20 - $60
Tuesdays through Sundays at 7:30 PM
Saturday & Sunday matinees at 3 PM
Running time is 2 hours, 40 minutes with intermission
Through November 12, 2006
“The first duty of a storyteller is to tell a story.” – Katurian from The Pillowman
Sadistic tale of storytelling shocks us to the core
Few playwrights can effectively juggle horrifying stories and dark humor that becomes even more intensely horrific than British playwright Martin McDonagh. In The Pillowman, McDonough moves from the west of Ireland to an unnamed totalitarian state where two police detectives interrogate a writer whose short stories remarkably resemble a series of child murders. Told in McDonagh’s sharp naturalistic dialogue that mines much darkly funny content, The Pillowman is a complex dramatization of the power of storytelling and the lasting effects of parental abuse.
As Steppenwolf Artistic Director Martha Lavey points out that the play’s “structure of duality: two rooms, two brothers, two detectives (ironically dubbed by one as “good cop/bad cop”) Central to the duality is the figure of the writer (himself a double: “Katurian Katurian.” McDonagh mixes the good versus evil throughout this brilliant work.
Katurain (Jim True-Frost) did write over 400 short stories many containing graphic violence toward children with gruesome details that were actually used in the killing of several local children. The two detectives, Tupolski (Tracy Letts) and Ariel (Yasen Peyankov) represent the totalitarian state and don’t hide their use of cruelty, torture as means to solve crime. McDonagh creates two amoral, cold-hearted cops who believe that the end always justifies the means allowing them use of torture and assassination to maintain order in the state. Tracy Letts as the “good cop” is the perfect counterweight to Yasen Peyankov’s sadistically violent cop.
Katurian (Jim Trrue-Frost) is defiant as he cares only that his mentally retarded brother Michal (Michael Shannon) be cared for and that his 400 stories be preserved as his legacy. After being tricked, tortured and interrogated also utilizing storytelling techniques, Katurian begins to explain the similarities between his stories and the actual murders by telling stories through re-enactments of his short stories. The set (designed by Loy Arcenas) is in an old theatre building complete with a curtained stage. It opens up so Katurian’s stories can come to life.
We learn that Katurian wrote nice cute stories up to age seven when his parents started to scare him with cries and sounds of torture supposedly inflicted on his older brother. These cries lasted for another seven years until at age fourteen, Katurian won a writing contest with a dark tale. His pleased parents showed him that it was only a trick to toughen him up for the real world. Later he peeked back into the ‘torture room’ to discover that there actually was an older brother who was indeed torture by his parents. Katurian instantly decided to protect Michal, the now retarded older brother by using pillows to smother both parents. The two stayed together for life.
We meet Michal, played with an innocent yet intense rage by Michael Shannon, as he tells Kutarian at the police station that he did actually copy Katurian’s stories and kill two kids, one by cutting off a boys five toes and the other by making a little girl swallow two apples with razors embedded. The scenes with Katurian and Michal alone are classic codependency. The influence of stories on behavior of children or simple-minded folks is vividly demonstrated. McDonagh shows that often abused children grow up to be miserable adults. He has Katurian write about a hero, The Pillowman, who offers abused children a way out by enticing them to suicide to spare them a life of despair. Murder and mercy co-exist since the world is such a cruel place.
After witnessing several of Katurian’s stories, the line between guilt and innocence becomes blurred. This macabre and complex story will fill audiences with a disturbing ambivalence as the shocking horror and funny dark comedy create an eerie feeling in each of us. Yet we savor the marvelous acting of Tracy Letts, Yasen Peyankov, Michael Shannon and Jim True-Frost. The Pillowman will haunt you and scare you as it reminds us of the power of storytelling to help us overcome our isolation and despair. The graphic violence and language aren’t suitable for children and the faint of heart.
Recommended
Tom Williams
Tom99@chicagocritic.com for comments
Talk Theatre in Chicago podcast
Date Reviewed: September 23. 2006
Jeff Recommended
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