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About the Play

Veering from the macabre to the hysterical, this viciously funny and disturbingly gruesome thriller centers on Katurian, a writer in a totalitarian state, who is brought in for questioning when the plot-lines of his stories bear an uncanny similarity to real-life crimes that have been committed in the community. Intertwining family secrets with the irrepressible power of storytelling and imagination, Martin McDonagh’s THE PILLOWMAN takes on some of today’s most potent issues—from censorship and the power of the state, to freedom of speech and the rights of the individual—all wrapped in a testament to the power of the imagination.

Check out the interview with Artistic Director Wendy Knox on the Guthrie Theater website. Note: this link goes to the Guthrie website and may stop functioning without notice. If you missed the interview, you missed a fantastic and articulate speech on the writing, the acting, and the overall concept of the play given by none other than Wendy herself.

About the Artists

Maria Asp (Mother) most recently appeared in Frank’s production of THE EXONERATED and MOTHER COURAGE, while she continues as the captain of CTC’s Neighborhood Bridges program; Patrick Bailey (Father) also appeared in THE EXONERATED and MOTHER COURAGE and looks forward to his upcoming role in the Jungle’s production of SHINING CITY; Chris Carlson (Ariel) makes his Frank debut with his appearance as the ‘bad cop” in THE PILLOWMAN; Michael Croswell (Sound Designer) returns to Frank after his recent stint with Circus Juventas and the Nebraska Shakespeare Festival, following his stellar performance as the musical director of Frank’s MOTHER COURAGE; Mike Kittel (Lighting Designer) bounces back to Frank after lighting the Bloomington Civic Theatre’s A LITTLE NIGHT MUSIC; Kathy Kohl (Costume Designer) continues to hold her place as the reigning queen of Frank costumes; Jim Lichtscheidl (Katurian) returns to Frank after a 14-year recovery from his last turn in a Frank show, MEASURE FOR MEASURE, and he does so on the heels of his brilliant performance in Ten Thousand Things’ hysterical LITTLE SHOP OF HORRORS; Grant Richey (Michal) played the nasty government official in Frank’s THE GOD OF HELL and the Chaplain in MOTHER COURAGE; Kai Russell (Boy) earned his title,“the official dead kid of Frank Theatre”, with his role in our production of THE WOMEN OF TROY, but this time appears as a live kid; Joel Sass (Set Designer) returns to Frank after designing VENUS for Frank in 2006, while he looks forward to directing SHINING CITYat the Jungle this fall; Luverne Seifert (Tupolski), who appeared frequently with Frank in the early days, returns as the “good cop”for this show; he is also head of B.A. Performance at the U of MN and will play the title role in Frank’s upcoming MACBETH; Aru Shiney Ajay (Girl) is a 5th grader at Pratt who was a stand-out in Artistic Director Wendy Knox’s class at the school last year, and she is also a regular with Solidarity Youth Kids’ Theatre; Spencer Putney and Katie Burger deserve medals of honor for their continued roles as Frank’s official stage management duo; Steve Matuszak and Shannon C. Harman assist the artistic staff.

Press Reaction

'Pillowman' as restful as a nightmare
BY DOMINIC P. PAPATOLA, Pioneer Press

Let's start this review with a warning: If you can't tolerate stories of little kids being brutally tortured and murdered, then "The Pillowman" is not the night at the theater for you. Ditto if your sensibilities would be offended by seeing the bare-knuckled law enforcement techniques employed in a dictatorship, the "f" word used like carpet-bombing in the Battle of Britain or small children painted green.

Martin McDonagh's ac-claimed 2003 script is, in fact, a horror show more than anything else. The playwright best known for "The Beauty Queen of Leenane" raked his consciousness for a slew of unspeakable stories of violence against children. And then he created Katurian, the author of those stories who finds himself in custody when some of those literary crimes start happening in real life.

The ensuing festival of mayhem and murder involves a mentally deficient brother, a good cop/psychotic cop interrogation and enough plot twists for the audience to reach for Dramamine. It's like the love child of Stephen King and Edgar Allen Poe, midwifed by Quentin Tarantino. It's horrifying and hilarious almost in the same breath, a testament to McDonagh's skill as a writer and his understanding of the human condition.

On the page, the play runs out of kinks and coils before the final scene and conjures a limp conclusion unworthy of the taut, scrupulous storytelling that precedes it. Frank Theatre's production, staged in the Guthrie Theater's Dowling Studio, is gilded with some glittering performances but lacks luster at the core.

Luverne Seifert and Chris Carlson log excellent, evocative work as a pair of police detectives who use torture, beatings and executions like the rest of us use ketchup.

Sneering and leaning in menacingly to his conversations, the clench-jawed Carlson prowls around Joel Sass' dulled steel container of a set, looking like the kind of damaged goods that could explode at any second. The crew-cutted, bespectacled Seifert is calmer; his sardonic grin is as much as part of his authority as his badge and his gun. Together, they both capture and explode the stereotypes of the good cop/bad cop pair.

Grant Richey is heartbreaking and true and terrifying as Katurian's developmentally disabled brother, Michal. Less is more in these kinds of roles, and Richey - his head brought slightly forward, his eyes not quite vacant, his grin eerily easy - strikes the balance perfectly in a role that garners both chuckles and gasps.

But the story centers on Katurian, the author, and Jim Lichtscheidl's performance doesn't deliver the goods. Best known for his comic turns, Lichtscheidl gets an "A" for going against the typecasting grain, as does director Wendy Knox. But, especially when viewed against the robust performances of his castmates, Lichtscheidl's performance feels thin and insufficiently examined.

Katurian has a grisly back-story, but there's no weight of that evident in Lichtscheidl's carriage, expression or manner. His anger and indignation feel manufactured, his jealous defense of Katurian's writing is muted, and what should be a sense of genuine horror at some of his deeds and discoveries feels blunted. An audience should view Katurian with a visceral mixture of revulsion and something bordering on grudging respect; Lichtscheidl's middle-of-the-road reading plays it safe and clean and doesn't leave much of a mark.

It makes his performance unsatisfying, but in a way, it's almost a relief. "The Pillowman" is such a trip through the psychic wringer that any reprieve feels like a chance to come up for air in a deep, cold and very black sea of ideas and images.

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9.21.07: The Pillowman at the Guthrie's Dowling Studio
By: Tad Simons, The Morning After Blog

Among the many fears that afflict fiction writers is the fear that they might one day be held accountable for all of the perverse, diabolical things their imagination has conjured. Stephen King has had plenty of fun wrestling with this demon, and Frank Theatre’s latest play—The Pillowman, by Martin McDonagh, at the Guthrie’s Dowling Studio—has more twisted glee at a writer’s expense than even King could ever imagine.

Jim Lichtscheidl plays Katurian, a writer who has been detained for questioning by police in a nameless totalitarian state. When the police officers (played brilliantly by Luverne Seifert and Chris Carlson) begin their interrogation, Katurian professes to be nothing but a humble storyteller. He has no idea why he is being questioned, except for the dimmest inkling that it might have something to do with his stories, which happen to involve lots of maimed and murdered children.

You’ll get no more plot details from me, because I don’t want to spoil the fun (though people with more delicate sensibilities might have a different word for it). The Pillowman is one of those dark, disturbing plays that pulls off the neat trick of mining its own inherent tension for lots of laughs. In style and tone, it’s an amusing cross between Harold Pinter, Franz Kafka, Law & Order, and Fellini—a clever whodunit with just enough literary and theatrical heft to make you think seriously about some of the issues it raises about free speech, modern parenting, cycles of abuse, and the role of stories in a politically repressive environment.

Frank Theatre director Wendy Knox often tackles projects that are long on spectacle and short on plot, but The Pillowman is precisely the opposite—a taut, well-acted play that fits the Guthrie’s Dowling Studio space perfectly. In lead roles, both Lichtscheidl and Seifert turn in bravura performances—particularly Seifert, whose unnerving but hilarious detective Tupolski keeps things off balance just enough to creep you out while you’re laughing at everything he says.

Appearing in the Guthrie’s Dowling Studio is an important step up for Frank Theatre, which often has to make do with makeshift spaces—such as abandoned grain factories—that aren’t exactly ideal for theater. The artistic stamp of approval on Frank’s work is well-deserved, and in The Pillowman those who haven’t experienced Frank in action have an excellent opportunity to see why Knox is one of the most versatile, interesting directors around. She just knows how to make a play work—and my advice is to get over to the Guthrie and let her work work on you.

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The Pillowman, A Frank Theater Production at Guthrie Theater on 9/21/07
By: David de Young, Howwastheshow.com

Synopsis: A writer of short horror fiction in a totalitarian state is taken into custody and interrogated by police after some local children are murdered. Awarded Laurence Olivier Award for Best new play in 2004 and nominated for Tony Award for Best Play in 2005. Run time: approximately 160 minutes with an intermission.

I’m not sure when I last experienced so much awkward laughter. In some ways, Irish playwright Martin McDonaugh’s dark comedy The Pillowman is a bit like a mirror held up to the audience. You learn a bit about yourself and those seated around you each time something outrageous happens or gets said on stage. Sometimes you find yourself laughing aloud in the company of others, and sometimes — more awkwardly still — all alone.

The Pillowman rivets you immediately. It is, after all, a thriller. A common intermission discussion topic will likely revolve around how you think the plot pieces will all eventually come together.

Despite being laugh-out-loud funny at like-clockwork intervals, McDonaugh’s play is about as far from a lighthearted work as you will find, and it’s the seriousness of the overall tone that will leave the theater with you even if you still remember a few of the zingers. Addressing themes like freedom of speech, censorship, and individual and artistic rights in a totalitarian regime recall events both real and of the sort that occur in fantastical novels as The Master & Margarita, another work in which creative expression goes head to head with a state desiring to control all aspects of life: political, social, economic, and cultural.

Director Wendy Knox addressed the impulse that led her to select the play saying, The Pillowman “offered a script that was oh, so smart and oh, so WRONG.” The script is also both timeless and contemporary. It would surely have been just as relevant in the 1950s, though perhaps even more outrageous for audiences at the time.

This Frank Theater production is being staged in the Dowling Studio on the 9th floor of the new Guthrie Theater complex. It features Jim Litchtscheidl as the writer Katurian, Chris Carlson as Ariel “the bad cop,” Luverne Seifer as Tupolski “the good cop.” With set design by Joel Sass and costumes by Kathy Kohl (portraying the two cops like 1970s TV detectives), what you gaze upon could be described as sci-fi meets Barney Miller.

Litchschedil, Carlson, and Seifert give great performances as the three principal actors. Additionally, Grant Richey, gives a powerful and disturbing performance as Katurian’s brother Michal. Many of the funniest one liners in the play go to Luverne Seifert’s character Tupolski, who at one point when questioned by Katurian about whether or not he could be trusted says, “I’m a high ranking police official in a totalitarian state and you wonder whether or not you should trust me?” Seifert’s timing and delivery are mostly perfect. His characterization balances well against a sincere and often pleading and questioning Katurian and a bombastic Ariel who is given to frequent fits of self-righteous rage.

The play was first presented in London in 2003, it was nominated for a Tony in 2005, and has been performed in New York and across the US over the past few years. This is the play’s Twin Cities premier.

The work of a 37-year old playwright, The Pillowman has a contemporary feel that will definitely appeal to the younger set of theater-goers. It’s one of the most exhilarating productions I have seen on a Twin Cities stage this season.

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talkinbroadway: Frank Theatre The Pillowman
by Ed Huyck

The Pillowman, we are told in director Wendy Knox's notes for the show, "is not exactly 'enjoyable.' I do hope you appreciate the show." Truer words have rarely been spoken. Martin McDonagh's play about art, oppression and murder is unrelentingly grim, loaded with images that can offend many different audiences.

Set in an unnamed totalitarian state, The Pillowman follows a struggling writer, Katurian, who has been brought in for questioning. It's not due to any political views he has expressed. It's that his stories have been played out in a series of brutal child murders. As it turns out, Katurian is innocent - but his mentally damaged brother Michal is not. And, as we dig deeper into Katurian's mind, his morbid tales were sparked by horrific acts perpetrated on the two by their parents in a sort of art experiment.

McDonagh is playing with heavy topics throughout and isn't afraid to push buttons that aren't often even looked at, let alone pushed, including one story that mixes the torture and murder of a child with the crucifixion. In many ways, it reminds me of Quills, except the Marquis de Sade was always in control of his muse in that play, while Katurian is truly at the mercy of his imagination. Of course, both are more interested in the fate of their creations than themselves; and both face societies that don't want to acknowledge the truth that lies within the work.

Early on, Katurian describes his work as being like a "puzzle without a solution." That can be said for the show as well. It's the kind of meaty, difficult work that Frank excels at producing, and The Pillowman stands well with the company's body of work. Fueled by a supreme and subtle performance by Jim Lichtscheidl as the tormented author, and supported by solid turns by Luverne Seifert and Chris Carlson as the police interrogators, the show rarely drags, even though it is lengthy and often not easy to watch.

Knox's spare direction and Joel Sass' striking set design - made up of hard angles and tarnished copper - only add to the sense of oppression and, yes, even suffocation. The end arrives with not so much a sense of satisfaction, but of relief that the descent into this mad world has ended, even if the tales - and parallels to our own world - continue to haunt the mind long after the show is done.

The Pillowman runs through Oct. 14 at the Guthrie Theater. For tickets, call 612.377.2224 or visit www.guthrietheater.org.