The Pillowman

For the sideshow performer nicknamed "Pillow Man", see Prince Randian.
The Pillowman
Written by Martin McDonagh
Characters Katurian
Tupolski
Ariel
Michal
Date premiered 13 November 2003
Place premiered Cottesloe Theatre
London, England
Original language English
Genre Black comedy

The Pillowman is a 2003 play by Irish playwright Martin McDonagh. It received its first public reading in an early version at the Finborough Theatre, London, in 1995. It tells the tale of Katurian, a fiction writer living in a police state who is interrogated about the gruesome content of his short stories, and their similarities to a number of bizarre child murders occurring in his town. The play received the 2004 Olivier Award for Best New Play, the 2004-5 New York Drama Critics' Circle Award for Best New Foreign Play, and two Tony Awards for production. It was nominated for the 2004 Evening Standard Award for Best New Play.

Summary

Katurian, a writer of short stories which often depict violence against children, has been arrested by two detectives, Ariel and Tupolski, because some of his stories resemble recent child murders. When he hears that his brother Michal has confessed to the murders and implicated Katurian, he resigns himself to his execution but attempts to save his stories from destruction. The play includes both narrations and reenactments of several of Katurian's stories, most notably the autobiographical "The Writer and the Writer's Brother", which tells how Katurian developed his disturbed imagination by hearing the sounds of Michal being tortured by their parents.

Characters

Katurian A writer of gruesome short stories often involving children. His disturbed imagination was the result of having heard his brother being abused when they were younger. Consequently he killed his parents and looked after his brother. He is shocked by his arrest.

Michal Katurian's brother, who is "slow to get things" following his years of abuse at the hands of his parents. He is also taken into jail along with Katurian.

Tupolski The lead detective and the "good cop" in the interrogation. Cold and uncaring, he sees himself as detached from the people he aims to save, shocking his younger partner Ariel.

Ariel A brutal and violent detective who has a vendetta against anyone who commits crimes against children because of abuse in his own past. He ends up being more sympathetic towards Katurian and his stories than Tupolski.

Minor characters include the parents/foster parents, The Little Jesus (girl), and a boy.

Plot

Act I

Scene 1: Ariel and Tupolski interrogate Katurian in a police room. At first Katurian does not know why he is being questioned, and thinks he is under suspicion of running political messages against the totalitarian dictatorship through his stories. The detectives and Katurian discuss grisly stories involving children. Ariel leaves the room, and soon after Michal is heard screaming in the next room. Ariel returns, his hand covered in blood from apparently torturing Michal, and tells Katurian that Michal has just confessed to killing three children, in association with Katurian. The first two children were murdered according to the patterns of the stories "The Little Apple Men" and "The Tale of the Town on the River." Katurian denies the allegations, stating that although his stories are gruesome it is the job of a storyteller to tell a story.

Scene 2: Katurian was raised by loving parents, who encouraged him to write, and for many years he wrote very happy stories. However, at night he began to hear sounds of torture from the next room, and as a result he began to write more disturbing stories. One night, a note is slipped under the door, claiming that Katurian's brother has been tortured nightly for seven years as part of an artistic experiment to get Katurian to become a great writer. Katurian breaks down the door, only to find his parents, who were playing a trick on him, just pretending to be torturing a child. However, when Katurian returns years later, he discovers his brother's dead body hidden under the mattress, clutching the manuscript of a beautiful story, better than any of Katurian's, which Katurian burns. Katurian then interrupts his narrative to say that this ending was fabricated when he wrote the story: actually when Katurian broke down the door, he found Michal still alive. Katurian then smothered his parents with a pillow that very night in vengeance for his disabled brother and the pain they had put him through. He then took over care for his brother.

Act II

Scene 1: Katurian and Michal are together in a cell, Katurian just having been tortured. Michal reveals that he had not been tortured, but rather cooperated entirely with Ariel, even screaming when Ariel asked him to. At Michal's request, Katurian tells him the story of "The Pillowman", about a man made of pillows who convinces children to kill themselves so they can be spared a horrible future. Michal then admits to having killed the children, claiming that Katurian told him to do it by telling his stories. Michal also admits that the third child was murdered following the story "The Little Jesus", one of Katurian's most violent tales. Michal tells Katurian that he had read the written version of "The Writer and the Writer's Brother", and resented the changes from the real version, wishing instead that Katurian had written a happy ending for the two brothers. Katurian lulls Michal to sleep by telling him the story "The Little Green Pig", then smothers him to save him the pain of the execution. Katurian calls to the detectives, announcing his intention to confess to the crimes on the condition that his stories are spared.

Scene 2: Katurian tells the others the story of the Little Jesus, which is the story thought to be the source for the third murder. A young girl believes that she is the second coming of Jesus, and goes about blessing unsavory characters, to the dismay of her parents and the annoyance of others. When her parents are killed in a horrific accident, she is sent to live with abusive foster parents. Annoyed with her pretensions of divinity, the foster parents complete her performance of Jesus' life by torturing her, crucifying her, and burying her alive so that she might rise again in three days, although she never does.

Act III

Scene 1: Katurian, in the interrogation room with Ariel and Tupolski, is writing his confession, recounting the three child murders as well as the murders of Michal and his parents. Ariel explains his hatred for child-murders as he is preparing to torture Katurian with an electric battery. Katurian guesses that Ariel's hatred arises from a problematic childhood, and Tupolski confirms that Ariel was raped by his father, whom he later murdered (by smothering). Tupolski prevents Ariel from torturing Katurian in order to question him. Katurian is unable to answer to whether the third child victim was still alive when she was buried, leading the detectives to consider that she may still be alive. While Ariel runs out to find the girl, Tupolski tells Katurian his own story about a deaf boy saved from being hit by a train because of the unseen efforts of a Chinese wise man in a tower; Tupolski sees himself as the wise man, protecting the innocent without getting personally involved with them. Ariel then returns with the girl, who was found quite alive, having been cast by Michal not in "The Little Jesus" but in the benign tale "The Little Green Pig." The detectives question Katurian and discover that he is actually ignorant of the details of the child murders, because he was not involved. The detectives execute Katurian for murdering Michal and his parents. Just as Ariel is about to torch the papers, however, Katurian stands up and tells how he used his last seconds to tell himself a story about how the Pillowman came to Michal when he was young. Michal decides not to kill himself, and to suffer years of torture, so that Katurian can write his stories. This story was going to end with Ariel burning the stories, but Katurian was shot before he could finish. In actuality, Ariel decides to save the stories.

Katurian's stories

The Little Apple Men

Told briefly in I.i, and re-enacted in the first child murder. A young girl, whose father mistreats her, carves a set of little men out of apples. She gives them to her father, telling him to save them rather than eat them. He scoffs at her, and eats several. The men have razor blades inside, which kill the father. In a twist ending, however, at night the remaining apple men accuse the girl of killing their brothers, and they jump down her throat to kill her.

The Three Gibbet Crossroads

Told in I.i. A man wakes up in an iron gibbet, aware that he has committed the crime he is being punished for, but unaware what the crime was. He sees two other gibbets, one marked Murderer and the other marked Rapist. Several people come by who have sympathy for the murderer and the rapist, but only disgust for the first man when they read the sign declaring his crime. The man is shot by a highwayman, still unable to determine what crime he could have committed that would be worse than murder or rape.

The Tale of the Town on the River

Told in I.i, and reenacted in the second murder. A young boy, mistreated by his parents, offers a strange dark rider a piece of his meal. Touched, the rider presents him a gift: he chops off the child's toes. The conclusion of the story relates that the rider was the Pied Piper on his way to Hamelin to take away the children. Since the boy is now crippled, he cannot keep up with the other children, and is therefore the only child in the town to survive.

The Pillowman

Told in II.i. The Pillowman is a being made out of pillows who visits people on the verge of suicide because of the tortured lives they have led. The Pillowman travels back in time to the person's childhood and convinces them to commit suicide, thereby avoiding a life of suffering. This task saddens the Pillowman, however, and he decides to visit his own younger self, who readily commits suicide. This relieves the Pillowman's sadness, but also causes all the children he saved to live out their miserable lives and eventually die alone.

The Little Green Pig

Told in II.i. Katurian's most juvenile story, but also the only one devoid of violence. A green pig, who enjoys his peculiar coloring, is mocked by the other pigs. The farmers use a special permanent paint to make the pig pink just like all the others. The pig prays to God to keep his peculiarity, and can't understand why God ignored his prayers. Soon after, however, a magic green rain falls that makes all the other pigs green, and since the little pig retains his pink color, he is once again "a little bit peculiar".

The Little Jesus

Reenacted in II.ii, and originally thought to be the source for the third murder. A young girl believes that she is the second coming of Jesus, and goes about blessing unsavory characters, to the dismay of her parents and the annoyance of others. When her parents are killed in a horrific accident, she is sent to live with abusive foster parents. Annoyed with her pretensions of divinity, the foster parents complete her performance of Jesus' life by torturing her, crucifying her, and burying her alive so that she might rise again in three days. She doesn't but three days later a man walks through the woods close to the girls grave. He fails to hear the scratching of her nails on the wood on her coffin, and does not see the fresh grave because - like a man the girl tried to heal - he is blind.

The Writer and the Writer's Brother

This story is partially autobiographical. A boy, raised by loving parents who encouraged him to write, wrote happy stories for many years. Then, at night, he begins hearing sounds of torture from the next room, and as a result he began to write more disturbing stories. One night, a note is slipped under the door, claiming that the boy's brother has been tortured nightly for seven years as part of an artistic experiment to get the boy to become a great writer. He breaks down the door, only to find his parents, who were playing a trick on him, just pretending to be torturing a child. However, when he returns years later, he discovers his brother's dead body hidden under the mattress, clutching the manuscript of a beautiful story, better than any of his, which he burns. Later in Act II Katurian tells Michal that in the story, the character Michal was the true "writer" of the title, whereas his own character was merely the brother.

The Shakespeare Room

Michal mentions this story to illustrate the fact that Katurian's work, in general, tends to be dark and twisted. Unlike the others, it is not narrated, acted out, or summarized in great detail. Michal gives the following brief synopsis of the story: instead of being the literary genius the world thinks him to be, William Shakespeare does not pen his own plays; instead, whenever he wants something written, he jabs a little pygmy woman who he keeps in a box and she, in turn, composes a play for him (Shakespeare takes the credit).

The Face Basement

An unnamed, sadistic character chops off the faces of his (undescribed) victims, puts them in a jar, and keeps them in his basement. As with "The Shakespeare Room", this story is mentioned by Michal only in passing.

Inspiration

The Pillowman stemmed in part from McDonagh's experience composing fairy tales, with names such as The Chair and the Wolfboy, The Short Fellow and the Strange Frog, and The Violin and the Drunken Angel, early in his writing career. Attempting to rewrite fairy tales he remembered from childhood, he realized that "there's something dark about them that doesn't quite come through."

In a conversation with Irish drama critic Fintan O'Toole in BOMB Magazine in 1998, McDonagh retold the Brothers Grimm version of Little Red Riding Hood, in which the wolf's stomach is filled with rocks and sewn with green wire, leading to the wolf's death. McDonagh's comment—"I would love to write something as horrific as that if I could"—indicates one potential inspiration for the story "The Little Apple Men" in The Pillowman.[1]

It has been noted that this play borrowed heavily from a 1991 independent film Closet Land, written and directed by Indian filmmaker Radha Bharadwaj which starred Madeleine Stowe and Alan Rickman.[2] Commenting on this, Bob Mielke, Ph.D, Professor of English at Truman State University has stated that "plot elements of Closet Land persist in another narrative host body, another way in which this text persists and haunts (if you will) our culture."[3][4]

Music

The original London and Broadway productions of the show featured music composed by Paddy Cunneen.

Notable productions

First version

It received its first public reading in an early version at the Finborough Theatre, London, in 1995 in a season that included Shopping and Fucking by Mark Ravenhill.

Premiere

The play had its world premiere on November 13, 2003 at the Royal National Theatre, directed by John Crowley. The original production starred

New York

The play opened on Broadway on April 10, 2005 at the Booth Theatre It concluded on September 18, 2005. This cast starred:

Paris

The play opened on March 23, 2012 at the Théâtre Aleph, directed by Raphaël Joly This cast starred:

Iran

the play opened on May 24, 2013 – July 18, 2013 at the Iranshahr Theater Directed by Aida Keykhaie/Mohammad Yaghoubi

Seoul

The play opened on May 1, 2007 at the LG art center, directed by Park, Geunhyong This cast starred:

Hong Kong "小心！枕頭人"

The play first opened on March 26, 2008 at the Hong Kong Fringe Theatre, followed by a revival on June 24, 2008 at the McAulay Studio, Wan Chai Arts Centre, directed by Eric Ng. This cast starred:

Argentina

Season 2008: "Lola Membrives" Theatre, Capital Federal, Buenos Aires. July 2008 to October 2008 Season 2009: "Multiteatro" Theatre, Capital federal, Buenos Aires. February 2009

Brisbane, Queensland, Australia

The season ran from 18 March - 4 April 2009 at the Sue Benner Theatre, Metro Arts. Directed by Michelle Miall (received Matilda Award Commendation (2009) for BEST DIRECTOR, BEST EMERGING ARTIST, and the Matilda Award for Direction), the cast included:

Ankara, Türkiye

The play opened on the 2011 season directed by İlham Yazar and will keep playing on 2013 season at the Turkish State Theatre, Ankara.

Awards and nominations

Awards
Nominations

See also

References

  1. ↑ O'Toole, Fintan. "Martin McDonagh". BOMB Magazine. Spring 1998. Retrieved 25 July 2011.
  2. ↑ Mielke, Bob. "Rebel With a Cause: Radha Bharadwaj's Maverick Masterpiece." Toad Suck Review, No. 4. 2014. Print.
  3. ↑ Professor Mielke, Bob. "Radha Bharadwaj, Perfect Traveler." Archived on Radha Bharadwaj Official Website. 23 February 2014. Retrieved 13 November 2014.
  4. ↑ Mallon, William. "When an author goes too far: An Examination of the similarities between The Pillowman by Martin McDonagh and Closet Land by Radha Bharadwaj." Honors thesis, Godard College, March 2010. Print.

Further reading

External links