Man Without a Plan

The Pillowman

by David Anthony Fox

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Published: Oct 18, 2006

McDonagh's provocative black comedy begins with the interrogation of a writer, Katurian, whose short stories — mostly about the awful deaths of children — are grimmer than Grimm, darker than Dahl. Moreover, their plots coincide eerily with actual murders in the area. Is Detective Tupolski on the right track in suspecting Katurian? Or is he simply out to silence a disquieting talent? What do we make of the growing mountain of grisly evidence? And of Katurian's stories themselves? If they answer some of the questions, well, God help us.

Pillowman is a departure for the Irish McDonagh, who for the first time has set a play in an unnamed (but repressively Soviet-like) country, and questions the limits of creative freedom (though all his plays deliberately push the envelope). Still, many of his usual themes are here in full force, including fascination with the almost unendurable pain and fragility of daily life, as well as with religion's hypocrisy and inability to offer real comfort. Also familiar from other McDonagh work is the startling collision of comedy and violence.

When I saw Pillowman in a tense, edge-of-your seat production at London's National Theatre, I was utterly spellbound by the writer and his vision. This time, I was far more aware of McDonagh's flaws: overwriting, self-conscious cleverness and so many twists and reversals that by the end, he has undercut the impact of his own play.

Zizka gets some of Pillowman exactly right. The little vignettes that play out Katurian's stories have a wonderful, Shockhead Peter vividness. In fact, the entire piece looks marvelous.

But the critical interrogation scenes, which can be hilarious and terrifying, are slack and only mildly amusing. Perhaps it's Zizka's deliberate choice to avoid any sense of an Eastern bloc environment, and to give Pillowman a softer, distinctively American feel. But it dilutes the atmosphere, a problem compounded by Lewis Stadlen's Tupolski: All amiable Jewish vaudeville shtick, he could be a character from Take the Money and Run or Portnoy's Complaint.

Most damaging, though, is Saxon Palmer's feckless performance as Katurian. Palmer neither suggests any meaningful inner life, nor even compels interest as he reads the stories, and leaves this Pillowman a story without a center.

(d_fox@citypaper.net)

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