By: David de Young
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| Jim Lichtscheidl, Chris Carlson and Luverne Seifert in The Pillowman. Publicity photo by Tony Nelson |
I’m not sure when I last experienced so much awkward laughter. In some ways, Irish playwright Martin McDonaugh’s dark comedy The Pillowman is a bit like a mirror held up to the audience. You learn a bit about yourself and those seated around you each time something outrageous happens or gets said on stage. Sometimes you find yourself laughing aloud in the company of others, and sometimes — more awkwardly still — all alone.
The Pillowman rivets you immediately. It is, after all, a thriller. A common intermission discussion topic will likely revolve around how you think the plot pieces will all eventually come together.
Despite being laugh-out-loud funny at like-clockwork intervals, McDonaugh’s play is about as far from a lighthearted work as you will find, and it’s the seriousness of the overall tone that will leave the theater with you even if you still remember a few of the zingers. Addressing themes like freedom of speech, censorship, and individual and artistic rights in a totalitarian regime recall events both real and of the sort that occur in fantastical novels as The Master & Margarita, another work in which creative expression goes head to head with a state desiring to control all aspects of life: political, social, economic, and cultural.
Director Wendy Knox addressed the impulse that led her to select the play saying, The Pillowman “offered a script that was oh, so smart and oh, so WRONG.” The script is also both timeless and contemporary. It would surely have been just as relevant in the 1950s, though perhaps even more outrageous for audiences at the time.
This Frank Theater production is being staged in the Dowling Studio on the 9th floor of the new Guthrie Theater complex. It features Jim Litchtscheidl as the writer Katurian, Chris Carlson as Ariel “the bad cop,” Luverne Seifer as Tupolski “the good cop.” With set design by Joel Sass and costumes by Kathy Kohl (portraying the two cops like 1970s TV detectives), what you gaze upon could be described as sci-fi meets Barney Miller.
Litchschedil, Carlson, and Seifer give great performances as the three principal actors. Additionally, Grant Richey, gives a powerful and disturbing performance as Katurian’s brother Michal. Many of the funniest one liners in the play go to Luverne Seifert’s character Tupolski, who at one point when questioned by Katurian about whether or not he could be trusted says, “I’m a high ranking police official in a totalitarian state and you wonder whether or not you should trust me?” Seifert’s timing and delivery are mostly perfect. His characterization balances well against a sincere and often pleading and questioning Katurian and a bombastic Ariel who is given to frequent fits of self-righteous rage.
The play was first presented in London in 2003, it was nominated for a Tony in 2005, and has been performed in New York and across the US over the past few years. This is the play’s Twin Cities premier.
The Pillowman runs September 20th through October 14th, 2007 in the Dowling Studio at the Guthrie Theater, 818 S. Second St., Mpls. Tickets are $18-$34 and available through the Guthrie Box Office at www.guthrietheater.org or 612-377-2224.
Location Info:
The Guthrie Theater
Artist Info: Frank Theatre
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