Martin McDonagh's searing play is set in an unnamed totalitarian dictatorship. Two policemen take a writer into custody - his crime: He writes stories that bear an uncanny similarity to a series of brutal, real-life killings. As the interrogation delves ever deeper, some shocking truths are revealed and the importance of 'The Story' as a concept takes centre-stage.
The Pillowman is an exceptionally funny black comedy. In McDonagh's Kafkaesque world, random cruelty flourishes, as does the sense that fiction has a purpose which life lacks. With his sharp insights into character, the nature of human suffering, and the juxtaposition of horror and absurdity, McDonagh has produced an engrossing theatrical spectacle.
*This play is not suitable for viewers under 16 years.
Praise for THE PILLOWMAN
"The Pillowman is the most brutal work yet from the celebrated author of The Beauty Queen of Leenane, and also his most tender, examining how the redeeming and restorative powers of love and creativity can mitigate or be undone by darker impulses." - Elysa Gardner, USA Today
"Energizing . . . a blindingly bright black comedy." - Ben Brantley, The New York Times
"Martin McDonagh, master of bad taste in black comedy's cause and persistent enfant terrible, leaps towards maturity in this dazzling, disquieting nightmare of a play which makes up its own Grimm fairy-tales." - Nicholas de Jongh, Evening Standard
Note
THE PILLOWMAN was first presented by the National Theatre at the Cottesloe, London, directed by John Crowley, on November 13, 2003
The production was subsequently produced on Broadway by the National Theatre, Robert Boyett Theatricals LLC and RMJF Inc. in association with Boyett Ostar, Robert Fox, Arielle Tepper, Stephanie P. McClelland, Debra Black, Dede Harris / Morton Swinsky / Roy Furman / John Avnet in association with Joyce Schweickert, opening at the Booth Theatre, New York City on April 10, 2005.