My parents were funny

The latest in an occasional series of theatre reviews...

The Pillowman : The Duke Of York's Theatre

My second consecutive trip to this nice old theatre - I don't really know a lot about the play but I'm expecting Martin McDonagh (In Bruges/Three Billboards/The Banshees of Inisherin) to serve up slightly darker fare than Willy Russell did with Shirley Valentine.  And, upon entry the stage was certainly darker - the only lighting was a single bulb which only flashed on briefly every five seconds, so you can probably imagine how long it took me to get a picture which showed anything at all!

Things become clearer after the house lights go down and the stage lights come up to reveal a nondescript room which looked surprisingly like some of my old school classrooms (complete with chunky radiators).  Into this room, Katurian K. Katurian (who is a writer - and guess what the K stands for!) is escorted by detectives Tupolski and Ariel - and it soon settles down into what appears to be a pretty standard "state questions/bans/imprisons/executes artist who has done something it disagrees with" scenario, albeit it with somewhat more humour than I imagine these situations generally involve.  However, given its author, it probably won't surprise you to find out that things are a little bit more complex than that.  And that's all I feel the need to tell you about the plot at this point in time...

Most of the action takes place as two or three person scenes between Katurian and either one or both of the detectives or her brother, who gets introduced about halfway through the play.  There are also some additional scenes depicting some of Katurian's stories, which form an important part of the narrative but also provide the opportunity for some impressive bits of scenery shifting - the staging of the play is impressive.

Considering the four main roles, Lily Allen as Katurian is generally impressive with some sections playing more to her strengths than others.  She has a LOT of words to deliver which she does faultlessly, and is great when asked to present an arch LilyAllenesque view but struggled to convince at times in some of the more emotional sections.  Steve Pemberton is good as Tupolski - the role is so like something he'd deliver on Inside Number 9 that I'm intrigued as to whether it was originally written that way or has been tweaked to play to his strengths (if it has, then I certainly don't feel the play has suffered).  Paul Kaye (who I didn't recognise at first - he has TERRIBLE hair in this) does the best with what he's given - it's a somewhat one-dimensional role to start with but does improve towards the end.  And last, but not least, Matthew Tennyson (who I thought I recognised but had to check Wikipedia to see I'd seen him in this) is also good as Michal, which is a very odd role indeed.  I'm also going to give a shout out to the unknown cast member who was "the little mute girl" who is barely in the play but makes one of the most unexpected and striking entrances I'm going to see all year - and I'd love to talk more about it, but it would provide an (extremely) oblique spoiler if you go and see it.

Going down a slight Wikipedia rabbit hole, the original London casting included David Tennant (who I saw recently in this), Adam Godley (who I saw not quite so recently in this) and Jim Broadbent (who I've never seen!) - that must have been an impressive production.  It also tells me that Jeff Goldblum played Tupolski in New York who I imagine put a very different spin on the role to Steve Pemberton.

Of the Martin McDonagh works I know (and there's not loads) I would say In Bruges is the closest to this in terms of style - but set in a totalitarian state with a lot of creepy stories involved.  It's a very inventive piece of work, but it's also very dark eg the pillowman of the title is a man composed entirely of pillows (seems nice enough, doesn't it?) whose only job is to convince suicidal people to travel back in time to when they were happy as a child so that they can die in a tragic accident instead (ohhhh-kaaaaay).  It also manages to deliver some proper shocks at times - you don't see several major plot points coming (or I didn't, anyway!)

The play feels like it has a lot to say about a lot of things eg the permanence and/or legacy of art, the nature of confession, the impact of childhood trauma - but, if I'm being entirely honest, I'm not completely sure what I was supposed to take away on any of those points.  It also feels very multi-layered - Katurian's stories drive the overall story both as a complete body of work and also as individual pieces.  It's all cleverly done, but at the same time, does manage to reach an ending which makes some kind of twisted sense, especially using the warped logic of the characters.  It's also a lot funnier than you'd expect it to be - but, as usual, I didn't find it quite as funny as most of the rest of the audience.

So, did I like it?  Yes, I did - it felt like "proper" new(ish) theatre to me, being challenging but not too challenging with some fine acting on display (it certainly seemed like quite a tricky play to put on) and enough laughs thrown in to raise the mood slightly (the overall dark mood is handled well).  It's on until the end of August and there are tickets left, but they're not the cheapest ones, I'm afraid.

Shirley Valentine - A good performance of a great play
Nick Offerman - A very enjoyable evening