REVIEW: Martin McDonagh’s The Pillowman is an impassioned plea for artistic freedom
Photos by Willie David Short V
“Brava to Ellen Cribbs and ACT for bringing this play to us (this week of all weeks!!) as artistic freedom in this country is being threatened like never before.”
The Pillowman is being given a gripping, funny, eye popping, entertaining production at Albany Civic Theater through 3/2. The show is very well cast, smartly directed, technically excellent and lets Martin McDonagh work his strange, sickening, magical storytelling for its full two and a half hours.
There’s a debate in the writer Katurian’s (the great Alexander Benson) head whether the adage is, “The first responsibility of the storyteller is to tell the story…” or whether it’s, “The only responsibility of the storyteller is to tell the story.” Playwright and screenwriter McDonagh (The Banshees of Inisherin, Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri) is in a ruminative mood amongst all his signature bloodletting in this 2003 play, his only piece which features a writer as the lead character.
Katurian is being questioned about his writing in a grimy interrogation room by two cops: Ariel (the explosive Daniel Perez) and Tupolski (a very fine Marty O’Connor). We learn that there have been children murdered in this unnamed, totalitarian state and Katurian is suspected because his stories frequently feature murdered children.
McDonagh wants us to ask questions. Is art responsible for actions in the real world? Does art have a responsibility to be positive and uplifting or can it be whatever it likes to be? Is the artist responsible for real life atrocities that spring from their work?
There are stories that contain swallowed razor blades, severed extremities and, of course, suffocations but don’t let that keep you from seeing this excellent play. The imagery described is certainly less graphic than an episode of Law & Order: SVU and nothing explicit is presented onstage.
In the cell next door is Katurian’s challenged brother Michal (compulsively watchable Aidan Thomas McKenna) who is like a toddler with a gun: charming, delightful and dangerous as hell. When he isn’t complaining about his itchy ass, he is demanding to be entertained by his brother’s stories.
With all this emphasis on storytelling, McDonagh and ACT do not stint on the spinning yarns and they do it in a variety of ways from every character. There is the third person narrator, the reminiscence, the short story read as a bedtime tale, a film (wonderfully done by Ellen Cribbs, John Cribbs, Michael McDermott, Brian Starnes, Aaron Wood, Jonah Wood, Nick Martiniano & Sara Anderson) and finally a fantastic shadow puppet production of “The Little Jesus.” Puppet and other props by Jennie Sinnott; her favorites are the severed toes that bounce around the set leaving Detective Tripoli to hunt them down.
Now would be a good time to extol the rest of the technical team who have crafted a marvel with this production. Lighting is by the ever illuminating Laura Darling, Evan Jones is the producer who brought all the elements together, Diana Chablis-Booker is the stage manager and board operator and the set was built by Adam M. Coons, Peter Kantor, Michael McDermott & Brian Sheldon. The set looks great and functions exceptionally well for this dark, demented, yet also fanciful play. Claire Hendricks has provided the arresting program’s artwork and has more to contribute late in the evening.
This is the third McDonagh play Albany Civic Theater has produced after The Beauty Queen of Leenane and The Cripple of Inishmaan and the love for the playwright is clearly evident in the all hands on deck collaborative beauty of the production. Ellen Cribbs has directed an excellent cast on a superb set that holds as many twists and surprises as the script.
Alexander Benson is a helluva actor. He listens like crazy, is fiercely present and makes great choices all night long. It was easy for me to stick with this troublesome tale because I loved his character and his stories almost as much as he did. Benson’s look of delight when his stories are being read is the look of artistic satisfaction.
McKenna as his abused brother has a bouncy, gleeful quality that easily earned the evenings biggest laughs. He also had no trouble bringing out the darker side.
O’Connor and Perez work well together as the constabulary: “I’m the good cop, he’s the bad cop,” Tupolski unnecessarily tells us. We know Perez as Ariel is the bad cop because he is enraged by the prisoner and screams, beats and threatens to torture him. Perez also shines in his quiet moments, like when he dreams of how he will be treated by children as an old man.
Marty O’Connor is doing the best work I have ever seen from him and I’ve been attending his performances for over 20 years. He is fast, direct and has a lightness of touch despite the brutal surroundings. I wish he had pulled back a bit on the “cop voice” and made Tupolski slightly more educated in speech but full disclosure: I auditioned for this part and maybe I can only see it the way I would have liked to play it, but I do believe Tupolski needs to be a really “good cop” to make his final act even more upsetting.
It’s great to see so many new faces on the ACT stage, with all four leads making their ACT MainStage debut.
“I think people only write about what they know because they’re too stupid to make things up,” McDonagh has Katurian say. The Pillowman is an impassioned plea for artistic freedom in all its guises and especially when it’s most upsetting. Brava to Ellen Cribbs and ACT for bringing this play to us (this week of all weeks!!) as artistic freedom in this country is being threatened like never before.
The Pillowmanruns through 3/2 at Albany Civic Theater. For tickets, visit www.albanycivictheater.org or call 518-462-1297.
