My PILLOWMAN experience!! ~long~

[gustof777]

Posted: 7/31/05 at 10:14pm

Hey everybody-
for the past two and a half weeks i have been going around the country looking at different colleges and of course the main schools that i wanted to look at were in NY...now i live in wisconsin and come from a family that doesn't have the chance to go to NY every year and see lots of shows my mom took me for my thirteenth birthday and we saw AIDA and KISS ME KATE and once i went with my mom for a business trip she was on and we saw INTO THE WOODS all were great and i love the city and so was very excited that for my birthday i could go see one show of my picking. Now i have always been into musicals and never even really gave plays i thought the only two that i have been in were little church plays but i really really admire Jeff Goldblum and the only musical i had a real desire to see was LIGHT IN THE PIAZZA and that one my mom didn't want to see so i asked what about THE PILLOWMAN not knowing the story or anything and my mom said whatever and so we headed on over to the booth theater and had about a twenty minute chat with the box office guy who was really kind and nice and told us what we needed to know about the show and sent us over to TKTS and we realized that they wouldn't take credit card so we went go back to get tickets full price and the guy gave us the best seats for like a 30 dollar discount!! Seriously he was an awesome dude! Anyways so we go that evening and i was struck at how beautiful the theater was and how small and how there really isn't a bad seat in the house. Anyways...

The Show:
It was the best thing i have ever seen in my entire life. I sat there and was spellbound the entire play which felt alot shorter than it was. It scared the crap out of me and the whole time i was gripping my seat. It was soo funny cuz the guy i was sitting next to was an avid theater go-er and was just very calm the whole time and i was sitting there just clinging on to my sister just waiting for something to pop out or i don't know what but man....i had no idea that theater could just keep your attention and just grab you and hold you. The play is HILARIOUS seriously the audience was rolling but its weird because you're laughing and you feel guilty for it because its soo dark and you're laughing for wrong reasons but there right...i don't know. The set design was amazing and it never got old and i loved how you just felt that they were trapped and i looked it was towering over him and he couldn't escape and the lighting i also thought was great. The way the house and the two rooms appeared i thought was brilliant and i thought that the Jesus girl scene was staged and lit perfectly just the visuals and and the musical and all the technical aspects of it were astonishing. Then there were the performances....whooweee now i realize DOUBT and all those other shows were good and granted i never saw them so keep that in mind but this play deserved soo much more recognition... Billy Crudup's performance was soo honest and heart wrenching that my twelve year old sister who hates me taking her to shows and hates anything with artistic value unless its clothes was bawling at the end and she loved the show and really loved Mr. Crudup in it. He is soo well rounded and the journey that you go on with him is just incredible...you feel his shock adn hurt at every plot turn he just is soo real i have no idea how he does that performance 8 times a week but he was wonderful and definitley the best performance of the night...in a VERY close second was Michael Stuhlbarg as the brother Michael...OMG he captured his character perfectly and just really broke your heart as well to. He was the kind of guy you felt a lot of sympathy for and he seems like this sweet innocent man and Mr. Stuhlbarg pulls that off great but what is even more impressive *****(SPOILER SPOILER)****is that he shows that this character is a killer and as much affection as you feel for him you are truly afraid of him. ***END SPOILER**** Zeljko Ivanek also giving a first class performance showing a true transformation throughout the play that is just amazing to watch and finally the always brilliant Jeff Goldblum he is soo funny in this play his style is just perfect for this and i read the first part of the play at a barnes and nobles the night before we went and my thoughts were that he wasn't right for it but man was i wrong he just was soo powerfuly and funny and the story about the little asain boy just had the audience rolling!! Overall it was an amazing night of theater and storytelling and a night that i will not soon forget...maybe its cuz it's the first real play that i've seen but it just inspired me and really haunted me and i loved it as did my family and we were the first on our feet to give it a much deserved standing o!! now i don't know how much longer it will run but if you haven't seen it yet by all means go it is soo good and deserves a very long run and if you've seen it go again because it just seems like that kind of show that the more you see it the more you notice new things and the more you can explore and i love that in in a play. This play just really re afirmed my love for theater in general.soo jsut thought i would share my amazing night one of the more amazing nights at the theater that this seventeen year old has had.

[cturtle]

Posted: 7/31/05 at 10:38pm

just don't EVER sit in the last row of the orchestra of the booth theatre. you can hear the traffic on the street and people on the sidewalk talking! it was really distracting.

[gustof777]

Posted: 7/31/05 at 10:42pm

oh yeah that was the one thing i didn't like halfway through the second act there was an ambulence outside and we heard it loud and clear the WHOLE time but i geuss that would make sense in the story

[QueenMuppet]

Posted: 8/1/05 at 5:57am

I don't mean to be rude but if your review had a few more paragraphs it would definitely receive more responses or attention.

Anyway, I'm glad you had a great time seeing this wonderful production. Looking forward to seeing it again too.

QM

[Mr. TN]

Posted: 8/1/05 at 10:23am

I'm glad you enjoyed the play. I have seen it multiple times. I too felt guilty laughing at some of the jokes because the actual circumstances are so dark. I also highly admire the talents of the leading four. It is a play that connects with an instinct in everyone. Most people view children in a protective and innocent nature and that is why The Pillowman tugs at your heart. Not to mention the plight of a writer in a totalitarian state who just wants his work to live. And the love of brothers and the terrible experiences of parental abuse. Come to think of it, minus the totalitarian state, The Pillowman hits on many of the real life themes plaguing today's world and the sick perverts that actually would do some of those things.

Anyway, this year is a good one for plays on Broadway. Doubt, The Pillowman, Glenngarry.., On Golden Pond (before it closed).

[BreakingTheCircle07]

Posted: 8/1/05 at 1:29pm

...if your review had a few more paragraphs it would definitely receive more responses or attention.

Yeesh.

Glad you liked it gushof777. Well written review. I'm seeing it a week from this Wedneday and I am stoked. Read the play last week and I could not put it down!

Updated On: 8/1/05 at 01:29 PM

[Barihunk]

Posted: 8/1/05 at 2:23pm

Glad you enjoyed it gushof - maybe you and others in this thread can help me with something concerning this play. I saw it back in June and left the theatre completely astonished. What astonished me is how anyone could see any redeeming value in this shabby little shocker of a play. In 27 years of theatre-going, I have never been so completely underwhelmed, almost to the point of wanting my money back. My question is, performances aside, design elements aside, what is the message of this play that makes it worthwhile? I would love to read some opinions as clearly I am in the minority here...

[baddadnpa]

Posted: 8/1/05 at 2:25pm

Why must a play have a message - can't one sit in a theatre and enjoy a story without there being some message to take away?

[gymman]

Posted: 8/1/05 at 2:27pm

I think that the play has no "message" as you describe it here. I saw the play yesterday, and I am still trying to figure out my reactions. Part of me thinks the play is--deliberately--a major con. As Brantley says, it's about the power and the necessity of stories, of narratives. I need to think about this some more.

[RobbO]

Posted: 8/1/05 at 2:30pm

the message is: don't take things at face value. use your brain and your logic. don't accept matters at face value. question! challenge! refute!

Updated On: 8/1/05 at 02:30 PM

[Garland Grrrl]

Posted: 8/1/05 at 3:07pm

*** SPOILER****
i thought this story was skillfully told, and yes i get the point about the power of stories--but i thought the sensibility behind it was adolescent bollux. if only little children knew how awful life would be--they'd just off themselves right then and there. the noble nihilist. i thought "f-you" to the playwright. i thought his artist as protagonist was way too precious. which is not to say i didn't believe the relationships onstage, etc. or the vaudvillian interchanges in the midst of the darkest moments--Beckett was irish too.

Updated On: 8/1/05 at 03:07 PM

[gymman]

Posted: 8/1/05 at 3:14pm

Thanks for pointing out how Irish the play is; I kept wanting to hear the accents! My partner is Irish, and we discussed that Irish fatalism. There's more Beckett here than most critics have notced (especially the sensibility).
I am tying to work out many of the issues GG mentions--the play does seem awfully glib and self-congratulatory. And there is definately a pomposity to the artist as protagonist thing.

Happy to see this discussion today!

[Barihunk]

Posted: 8/1/05 at 3:20pm

Gymman - thank you for using the word glib. This is the adjective I use most often in describing what turned me off to this to friends. Glad to see I was not alone.

[Garland Grrrl]

Posted: 8/1/05 at 3:23pm

i know this playwright likes to "make stuff up"(because as the play says (paraphrasing)--people who write about what they know just don't want to use their imaginations) and be provocative but i thought--here we are in 2005 fighting for so much against such corruption (human rights, horrid war going on, disappearing constitution, etc) not to mention all the pain and "torture" of my own life and i thought he made such a romantic/noble hero of this guy who was saying that life is pointless.
i know what a hero is--and it aint him!

yes, and i would have cared more if the stores had been BETTER.

Updated On: 8/1/05 at 03:23 PM

[gymman]

Posted: 8/1/05 at 3:26pm

Well, I think what's supposed to matter here is the stories, because they endure. Life may be s..., but stories stick around. And not "art"--there;s no sense that K's stories in the play are "art."

[Barihunk]

Posted: 8/1/05 at 3:30pm

What I just couldn't understand was why these stories were so desperately worth saving. Weren't they the by-product of psycho-social experimentation by parents? There was nothing at stake here in this play for me... just a collection of, admittedly well-told, stories that I just didn't care to hear.

[gymman]

Posted: 8/1/05 at 3:40pm

yes, I think that's supposed to be the point.
The stories are just that...stories. They are not "art," whatever that is. I suppose they "bear witness" to K's life?

[RobbO]

Posted: 8/1/05 at 3:45pm

maybe that is part of it. the writer thought his stories were all he had to show for his life so he placed a (perhaps undue) importance and weight on them.

[gustof777]

Posted: 8/1/05 at 6:14pm

hey interesting discussion-
i also don't know if there really was a message per se to the play...i kind of got the does art (or stories) inspire violence but then it sort of drifted from that and never really answered it. I also didn't think of Katurian as a real hero in the sense of word....i think the beauty of Crudups performance is that you didn't just heroism...you saw a real man who had flaws and in my opinion needed serious mental help...i think that those stories showed us that. That he is deeply disturbed from his childhood are they stories worth saving...i don't know? They definitley reminded me of those stories that you tell at camp that scare you and that entertain you...but i think that reason that alot of the audience wants katurian's stories to be saved is that these stories are his life and lifes work and they are ****SPOILER**** the only real thing he has now that he has lost his family******END SPOILER**** he is a lonley man and you can tell that his characters that he creates are his only friends and that the only way he will be remembered is through these stories and so for that i wanted them to be saved. I think that there is soo much of this play to be discovered and that for now is my two cents....oh and muppet i don't write for you or anyone i just wanted to put my experience in words and thought i'd share sorry if it offended you

[Becky]

Posted: 8/1/05 at 7:40pm

What I just couldn't understand was why these stories were so desperately worth saving.

Katurian's stories were one of the most important things in his life from a very young age. However, I felt as if Katurian was overly protective of his stories because they were the only positive thing that came from Michal's years of living in torture. If the stories are destroyed - then it's as if Michal was tortured all those years for nothing. It also makes sense because Katurian makes up that last story at the end about Michal *choosing* a life of torture to help him write stories that Michal will get to enjoy....it helps to ease Katurian's mind because he thinks the stories are going to be destroyed and he has to reconcile that part with himself. He sort of had to find a way to make it ok if the stories were burned - and he did that by telling himself that Michal had gotten pleasure out of them while they were there (so the torture wasn't for nothing). That's my little theory anyway.

My question is, performances aside, design elements aside, what is the message of this play that makes it worthwhile?

Barihunk, if you are casting the performances and the design elements aside while wanting to discuss the play - then I'm not sure we will agree on much. The performances, the design, etc, was a large part of what made the show worthwile. There doesn't always have to be a "message" to nicely wrap the piece in a nice little package for the audience. This show gave me *so* much to think about after I left - and if anyone has to explain it then you probably aren't going to appreciate it in the same way many of us did.

To say you were underwhelmed is completely the opposite feeling I had leaving the theater.


Updated On: 8/1/05 at 07:40 PM

[gustof777]

Posted: 8/1/05 at 9:17pm

perfectly said i can understand coming out maybe not liking it but definitly not underwhelmed

[Mr. TN]

Posted: 8/1/05 at 11:47pm

Although the play has no complete message, in the "moral of the story" sense, there is far too much going on for it to be bland. The play explores many different motifs.

POSSIBLE SPOILERS

Katurian's main focus seems to be on the significance of stories and storytelling. He states many times that the first duty of a story teller is to tell a story. He also states that a writer's work is far more important than his own self and why he is willing to die if it means saving his work. Michal, his brother, does not have the brainpower to discern reality from fantasy and so acts out his brother's morbid stories. But there are glimpses that he really isn't dumb. Several times he gives really potent, albeit simple, criticisms of K's stories that seem to make perfect sense.

Tupolski and Ariel are two sides of the same coin. Tupolski uses logic to interrogate K while Ariel seems bent on torturing the heck out of him. This is a popular battle in today's word whether diplomacy and talking outweigh force. Katurian and his brother exemplify the possible brotherly love that is nurturing and caring. K cares for his brother even in killing him. He tells him the story of the Little Green pig and then smothers him with the pillow to save him from the horror of torture and execution that will be coming in an hour and a half. He also confesses to murders that he had nothing to do with to save his brother's integrity. This, however, is not a smart thing to do because the detectives eventually put his stories at risk as a result of his lie.

The similarities in situation between all of the characters is also a small play in itself. Ariel happened to be abused and killed his father. His sympathy allows him to disobey Tupolski and not burn the stories. He eventually feels sorry for Katurian. Tupolski has lost a child in an accident. The story of the Pillowman written by Katurian seemed to move him. There is a beautiful unspoken moment right after Tupolski states that he liked the Pillowman story and tells Katurian that his son drown in a fishing accident. The audience sighed at that moment and even though no words were spoken you could tell the mixed feeling of happiness and sadness and guilt in Tupolski. And in that fraction of a second, I actually believed that Tupolski thought the Pillomwan could be actually real or that he wished he was.

I will stop there because there are many more little sections that I could go into but that would take ages. My point is: The reason I liked the Pillowman so very much was because of the small little plays going on in the big picture. Each individual theme seemed to stand alone, but were connected through the bigger plot outline. You could do a play on "the meaning of art" such as The Shape of Things. You could do a play on brotherly love, there are many out there. You could do a play on logic vs. force. You could do a play on abusive parents. You could do a play on child murders but with all of these in one play, you get a picture of broad reality. All of these motifs happening at one time. That is real life. Many little snipits happening at one time. Or at least that is my view on life. I am sorry for the long post but I had much to say on this play.

[Becky]

Posted: 8/2/05 at 1:00am

Thank you Mr. TN - I didn't have the energy today to go that in depth - and you said it far better than I could have anyway.

[Garland Grrrl]

Posted: 8/2/05 at 10:31am

i would like to add what i appreciated about this production. i LOVED the theatricality of it all. the set was GREAT--the claustrophobia and isolation were palpable. i think DOUBT could have been a film. PILLOWMAN must be seen in a theater.
i'm not so concerned with a "message" but the romanticizing of nihilism just pisses me off in general and strikes me as very childish. and the cast was flawless.