Lily Allen carries the show and gives a superb performance as Katurian, never leaving the stage for a second. She delivers the lengthy dialogue in an engaging way that kept the sold-out audience captivated from the very beginning to the very end.
Set in a modern dictatorship, where police torture for fun and decide the fate of lives like a game of Russian roulette, Katurian finds herself blindfolded and taken to an interrogation room by police, to talk about the short stories she has written. These dark and twisted tales, inspired by her own childhood, are coming true and they want to know why. With her brother being tortured in the next room, will she save him over her stories, and does she even have the answers they want?
The Pillowman is one of four hundred short stories Katurian has written (yet only one, so far, has been published). Her stories tell tales of children who believe they are the second coming of Jesus and have his last moments reenacted to test their theory, a green pig, covered in pink paint to make him look like all the others because he doesn’t fit in and perhaps the most important story, the autobiographical ‘The Writer and the Writers Brother’. The Pillowman however is her brother Michal’s favourite. It tells the story of a mythical being, made entirely out of pillows, who visits children at night to convince them that they are better off killing themselves than going on to live a torturous life and ultimately committing suicide anyway. Is it better to die and not suffer? Or is life about suffering? Is this an act of evil or one of mercy?
Lily Allen carries the show and gives a superb performance as Katurian, never leaving the stage for a second. She delivers the lengthy dialogue in an engaging way that kept the sold-out audience captivated from the very beginning to the very end. I can’t remember the last time I went to the theatre and didn’t see phone lights popping up, or people eating or talking – there was pure silence throughout, which says something about the performer’s ability to draw the audience in. Matthew Tennyson as brother Michal is equally engaging and the pair oozed chemistry in their scene together. He embodies the childlike character (who has learning difficulties) in a funny, yet respectable way.
Steve Pemberton (The League of Gentlemen) and Paul Kaye (Dennis Pennis) play good cop/bad cop Tupolski and Ariel like something out of an 80’s sitcom (if that sitcom were well after the watershed) and help to keep the comedy flowing and tempers raging high.
The set design by Anna Fleischle is PHENOMINAL (my phone auto-corrected that to capital letters and I’m leaving it because that is totally correct). The set moves slowly backward, into the distance between scenes, allowing for a brand new stage to enter from the wings like a doll’s house opening.
Despite its harsh language, horrific subject matter, and brutal scenes, there is a huge amount of comedy in this show. From Katurians dry and unflappable character to Michal’s childish retorts, there is enough lightness throughout to counteract the dark storyline.
The Pillowman asks the question “If a writer writes stories about killing children, and then someone else starts killing children in the same way, is the writer responsible?” But it goes so much deeper than that and delves into the psyche to ask “Why does someone write these kinds of stories to begin with?”.
A captivating and thought-provoking story, with sensational performances all around. The kind of play that leaves you asking questions and as soon as you find the answers, the whole play becomes even more incredible.
An utter triumph all around – I will be seeing this production again!
Reviewed by West End Wilma
