rOcKS' review of THE PILLOWMAN text- Page 2

[gavrochegirl]

Posted: 8/4/06 at 5:22pm

I love The Pillowman, but it seems like there's the word f*ck on every page...

[gustof777]

Posted: 8/4/06 at 5:25pm

lol I wouldn't be suprised if that were true. But that's a lot of his plays...McDonagh definitley isn't for children

[Katurian2]

Posted: 8/4/06 at 7:04pm

OK- I am writing a synopsis right now since I have nothing better to do- wait for an update

[Theatreboy49]

Posted: 8/4/06 at 7:07pm

It is by far the most amazing play I ever read. I never got to see it but a regional theatre here in chi town is doing it later this summer i do belive.

[Katurian2]

Posted: 8/4/06 at 7:31pm

The play begins with the central character, a writer, Katurian, sitting at a table in an interrogation room with a blindfold on. Two detectives walk into the room- Tupolski and Ariel. Tupolski has a large box file with papers inside of it. After removing the blindfold- and making a few dry jokes- the detectives intoduce themselves. Katurian remarks that he is confused as to why he is there.
As the detectives prod Katurian for answers to their questions, he becomes more and more aggrevated. Slowly- the "good cop" and "bad cop" situation arises. Ariel simply wants to torture and kill Katurian- while Tupolski looks deeper for answers.
Tupolski eventually pulls out something from the box file- it is a short story that Katurian has written called "The Little Apple Men."
The story is quite violent- like most of the author's work. The Little Apple Men- in short is about a little girl who's father treats her badly. So, one day she carves little men out of apples and give them to her father. She tells him not to eat them- but he does anyway. The apples have razorblades inthem ,and the father dies in agony. But then the little girl wakes up in the night. A bunch of applesmen are on her chest and they say that she killed their brothers. Then they climb down her throat with razors and she dies as well.
The investigations then begins to center around Katurian's brother, Michal, who is in the cell next to him. Katurian is very worried about Michal, as Michal is mentally disabled. The detectives then move onto the next story called "The Tale of the Three Gibbet Crossroads." Basically a man wakes up in an iron gibbet and wonders how he got there. Outside each gibbet, there is a plaque saying the crime the person has done. He tries to ask prisoners around him to read his plaque- but they won't answer. At the end, a highwayman comes along and frees all the prisoners except him- the highwayman takes one look at the man's plaque and shoots him. End of story.
After some more questions, Katurian is asked to read another one of his stories. Basically, it is the backstory to the Pied Piper. He came to the town to kidnap the children- but before he does, he meets one nice boy who happily shares his meager lunch with the Pied Piper. The piper says that he will give the boy a gift in return- and he chops off all the boys toes and throws them in the river. That way- the boys can't keep up with the other children who are later kidnapped.
After this story- Tupolski (Ariel is torturing Katurian's brother) reveals to Katurian why he is there. Tupolski asks Katurian is if has heard of a girl named "Andrea Jovacovic" is. Katurian says- only from the papers. She was a young girl who was found dead on a heath. Another child's name arises- Aaron Goldburg- he was found in the dump. And then a third child is mentioned- a little mute girl who is still missing.
Tupolski places a box in front of Katurian and tells him to open it. Inside are 5 little toes. Ariel (now done with torturing Michal) tells Katurian that they were found in Katurian's house. And asks, "Do you know how the little girl on the heath died? Two razor blades down her little f****** throat, both wrapped in apple. You know how the little Jew boy died? His first toe, his second toe, his third toe..." Obviously- Katurian's stories have somehow been coming to life...
Tupolski tells Katurian that Michael has admitted to commiting the crimes, and that Katurian will dies before the evening ends. Katurian still refuses to believe the detectives, and won't tell them anything.
Katurian then warps into a sort of cut-scene- where he faces the audience and tells them one of his stories called "The Writer and the Writer's Brother." (This is quite long- so I will be very brief) Basically- it is about a little boy loved by his parents. One day- he starts hearing strange sounds coming from the locked room by his. One that same day- ironically, his parents give him a notebook and tell him to write stories. The boy's stories were very good, but then they gradually got darker and darker as the strange sounds of torturing continued from across the hall. One day- the kid finds a note slipped from under the door saying "They have loved you and tortured me for seven straight years for no reason other than as a scientific experiment...." It was sidned, "Your brother." The little boy axed through the door to find his parents sitting in the bed making toture noises and laughing. They had written the note. Years later- the boy comes back to the house and look in the room. This time he finds the bloody corpse of a child that had been left to rot. In the child's hand he found a story better than any he had ever written. So he burned it. The little boy went into his parent's bedroom and held a pillow over his mother and father's head. They died...
Katurian finds himself in a cell with his brother, Michael.

I'll finish this later. I have a dinner party to go to. :P

Updated On: 8/4/06 at 07:31 PM

[thevolleyballer]

Posted: 8/6/06 at 11:41pm

Wow. Went out and bought the play (finally found it). Read it. Jeeeeeeeez.

[gustof777]

Posted: 8/6/06 at 11:42pm

is that a jeeez good or bad?

[thevolleyballer]

Posted: 8/6/06 at 11:43pm

Oh, most definitely a good. I haven't been so... I don't know, intrigued, maybe?... by a play or novel in a long time. Wow. :)

[gustof777]

Posted: 8/6/06 at 11:46pm

oh yay! That's what I thought but I was just making sure...that was kind of my reaction. I could barely get out of my seat and trust me seeing it is a whole different experience from reading it. Soo good! So good!

[Yankeefan007]

Posted: 8/7/06 at 12:02am

Pillowman is a brilliant, heart-pounding, edge of your seat thriller. I can easily see Tim Burton making a film out of it. It could be brilliant.

[broadway_show_fan]

Posted: 8/7/06 at 3:48am

I saw this show exactly a week before it closed. I believe it was one of the smartest decisions I ever made. It was the first straight play on Broadway that I'd chosen to see myself (my dad's company had gotten tickets for a company holiday thing back in January '02 for everyone to see that Neil Simon flop 45 Seconds from Broadway).

I think the show was riveting, dark, hilarious... and so much more that I could never express in words. I wish I would've been able to see it again, but I did buy the text and have read it a few times and my friend and I also did a dialogue (I changed Michal's sex from male to female, but it worked fantastically).

I also did see Doubt, twice, once with the original cast and once with the "replacement" cast, and have read this play as well. Comparatively, I can see why both were viable contenders for Best Play, and when I break them down into their most basic elements I see a lot of similarities. To me (any others?) both shows are compelling plays with a strong plot and plot twists (I believe this is undeniable). There are certainly strong characters in both shows; again, fairly undeniable, in my opinion. Subject to some argument, I think both have some fable or fairy-tale-like quality to them. Doubt even goes so far as to be called a "Parable," and The Pillowman, with it's storytelling, etc. And to a greater or lesser degree, each addresses social and political concerns, Doubt I believe to do so a little more than its competitor.

As for differences (again, just my opinion), The Pillowman seemed to be, at base level, a dark show with lots of twisted, dark humor. Even though Doubt addressed deep issues, it wasn't "dark," (though by no means an "Odd Couple"-esque comedy). I think one major plus of Doubt was that it had interspersed jokes - only where needed. It seems like McDonogh threw in comedic passages just for the heck of it, like Tupolski and Katurian or Michal and Katurian were on the verge of starting a slapstick routine, whereas Shanley knew just where the comedy was needed, what was enough and what was not distracting from the flow of the plot.

The short of it all, is that I think many older people, perhaps many Tony voters and award show voters in general, are just not as "into" the dark show with the dark humor. Additionally, I think they loved the church relevence, the just-past-JFK time period, the familiar New York and not undefined totalitarian setting, etc. - all these things making Doubt settle with them a little better than The Pillowman and leading them to favor it more.

I am not sure that I agree with the decision, but I think I might understand part of why it happened. Maybe I'm completely off-track, who knows, but it is only my opinion about these two fabulous shows.

On another point and then the end of this long post - The Pillowman will also be playing in DC at the Studio Theatre. Don't go crazy though; it doesn't open until March 14, 2007. Until then though - they are opening their season with Red Light Winter opening September 6. :)
Updated On: 8/7/06 at 03:48 AM