The Pillowman (The SOB Review) - Dowling Studio, Guthrie, Minneapolis, MN***1/2 (out of ****)The tagline for Minneapolis' fledgling
Frank Theatre is "Reflecting the world we live in."
One shudders to think of the implications given the company's current production of
The Pillowman -- currently playing in the
Guthrie's more experimental space. It's one inference smacking of a detemined political nature: that our world is one overridden with torture and an overarching, ham-fisted threat thereof.
Still, under the direction of
Wendy Knox and
Joel Sass' deceptively simple chrome stage design offset by sliding doors that whir (courtesy of Michael Croswell's sound design), the slightly futuristic world inhabited by the
The Pillowman's characters is a bleak totalitarian state where police employ nefarious scare tactics to wedge their way inside the minds of criminals.
Compared to the
decent production I saw one year ago at Chicago's Steppenwolf, Knox offers a more incisively wide-eyed clarity to
Martin McDonagh's long, yet riveting play about a young writer named Katurian Katurian (an excellent, exhausting spot-on turn by
Jim Lichtscheidl) who comes under scrutiny by good cop Tupolski (brilliantly funny
Luverne Seifert) and bad cop Ariel (a deliciously inscrutable
Chris Carlson) when a series of murders too closely mirror his unpublished stories.
If there's one misstep, it's in
Grant Richey's misguided channeling of
Dustin Hoffman in "
Rain Man" as Katurian's mentally challenged brother Michal, who comes across as much too all-knowing rather than an innocent incapable of understanding the carnage he has wrought.
Still, there's only empathy here for Katurian as he dispenses with his brother in a display of poetic justice so that his stories may outlive both of them. And thanks to the sheer enormity of angst Lichtscheidl brings to Katurian's tortured soul, there's more than sufficient pathos to leave us pondering what we'd do in the same situation.
This is Steve On Broadway (SOB).
Click here for tickets.Related Stories:The Pillowman (The SOB Review) - Steppenwolf Theatre, Chicago, IL (September 25, 2006)
Labels: Frank Theatre, Guthrie, Minneapolis/St. Paul, Play, The Pillowman
The Pillowman: Chicago ReviewsLast evening marked the Chicago premiere of
Martin McDonagh's critically-acclaimed play
The Pillowman -- which won the 2004 Olivier Award for Best Play and was nominated for the 2005 Tony. The decidedly dark play made its Chicago debut at the
Steppenwolf Theatre and met with critical approval from the city's two major papers.
Calling
The Pillowman "brilliant" and "one of the very best plays of the past decade,"
Chicago Tribune's
Chris Jones sounds his disappointment that the show's shock quotient has been diminished in its journey to Chicago: "Many will find the show disturbing, as the playwright intends. But I doubt you will be scared out of your wits or stifling screams. Which is a shame. (
Amy) Morton's production compensates by focusing on powerful acting....(
Yesan) Peyankov could do to be somewhat nastier early on, but once it gets fired up, their relationship makes for some blistering theater. Superbly cast and dominant, (
Tracy) Letts -- who recalls a nastier version of
David Letterman -- fires on every one of his combustible cylinders."
In recommending the play, Chicago Sun-Times critic
Hedy Weiss zeroes-in on Morton's direction and the ensemble's acting. "Morton keeps the willing suspension of belief and the shrewder instinct for disbelief in a state of continual tension....And Peyankov, his head shaved like an egg, brings a winning authenticity to Ariel (no doubt drawing on his own upbringing in communist Bulgaria). He is perfect."
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Related Stories:
The Pillowman (The SOB Review) - Steppenwolf Theatre, Chicago, IL (September 25, 2006)
Steppenwolf's Pillowman Opens Tonight in Chicago (September 24, 2006)
Labels: Chicago, Critics' Capsule, Play, Steppenwolf, The Pillowman
The Pillowman (The SOB Review) - Steppenwolf Theatre, Chicago, IL*** (out of ****)You have to hand it to
Martin McDonagh, the estimable young playwright known for conjuring up primarily darker -- read:
violent -- subject matter in his theatrical creations. He’s masterful at building a plotline that is at once both jarring and laugh-out-loud funny. In
The Pillowman, he expertly holds the mirror up to
himself and his own intensely brutal body of work, taking stock of whether his first duty as a storyteller “is to tell a story” or if it’s to take the blame when such stories are irresponsibly mimicked by those who can’t separate fiction from reality.
In
Steppenwolf’s staging of this oft-praised play that opened last night in Chicago, director
Amy Morton takes the audience headlong into a study of good vs. evil where virtually everyone has blood on their hands,
literally.
The Pillowman delves into what happens when police in an unnamed totalitarian state suspect a disturbing link between heinous crimes committed against children and an author whose stories are eerily similar. In a police state, is the author -- with the curious name Katurian Katurian Katurian (played with the right mix of indignation and fear by
Jim True-Frost) -- culpable merely because he conceived such dark tales or did his stories lead him to physically commit the crimes? Are delivered confessions the result of torture or something even deeper?
The Pillowman, as it turns out is not only the name of one of Katurian’s more sympathetic creations who gives comfort to small children on the verge of death, but it also serves as an ample, and ultimately appropriate, metaphor for Katurian himself. As the play progresses through police interrogation, play vignettes within the play and conversations with Katurian’s mentally impaired brother Michal (perfectly played by
Michael Shannon), we learn what horrific circumstances from his own childhood lead him to write such macabre fiction in the first place.
While this is indeed a
grim fairy tale, it is buoyed by brilliant acting and breathtaking direction. In addition to True-Frost and Shannon, there is a delicious good cop/bad cop routine that is ultimately turned on its head by the coupling of the unusually droll
Tracy Letts as Tupolski with the explosive
Yasen Peyankov as Ariel. Both actors are in top form and ideally suited to their roles.
Certainly, this is not a play for the faint of heart, nor is it for one who is easily offended by Christ-like allegories or depictions of evil befalling children. But
The Pillowman offers a chillingly candid look into the mirror of one of today’s most accomplished playwrights and tells its audience that even if we don’t approve of what he’s told us, his stories still deserve to be told, particularly since he's so shockingly good at telling them.
This is Steve On Broadway (SOB).
Click here for tickets.Related Stories:Steppenwolf's Pillowman Opens Tonight in Chicago (September 24, 2006)
Labels: Chicago, Play, Steppenwolf, The Pillowman, The SOB Review
Steppenwolf's Pillowman Opens Tonight in ChicagoThe Pillowman,
Martin McDonagh's disturbing, dark play about a writer who's interrogated about murders that are eerily similar to those in his stories, opens this evening at Chicago's Steppenwolf Downstairs Theatre. This production should not be confused with the acclaimed London/Broadway production that snapped up the Olivier Award for Best New Play in 2004 and two Tonys for lighting and set design in 2005. Instead, this version is helmed by Steppenwolf ensemble member
Amy Morton and features
Tracy Letts,
Yasen Peyankov and
Jim True-Frost.
Will the play that many view as McDonagh's masterpiece translate well in Chicago? We'll find out tomorrow when the reviews are published. I'll be at this evening's opening and provide you with my personal view tomorrow.
This is Steve On Broadway (SOB).
Click here for tickets.Labels: Chicago, Opening Night, Play, Steppenwolf, The Pillowman
