As an adult, when you revisit any one of the classic bedtime stories from popular childhood authors Grimm, Anderson or Aesop, you have to raise an eyebrow (as I did) as to why we would share such things with children right before we turned them over to the darkness of bedtime. Even I, without kids, have to wonder if these tales of yesterday are suitable for bedtime stories – and, if so, then why we don’t just jump the literature line heading straight to Edgar Allen Poe?
Admittedly, what attracted me to the play The Pillowman is not that it is the only play (to the best of my knowledge) by Irish playwright Martin McDonagh we’ve not staged yet, but that, given its dark nature, it’s a play where children murdered at the hands of another are strangely connected to a series of dark stories created by the protagonist.
This much-awarded play, with an Olivier Award, five New York Drama Critics’ Circle, and two Tony Awards, is not just a thrill to experience, with a story line that includes an all too-similar-to-deny-copy-cat murderous tale of two brothers. The fact that this is being staged at the intimate Dog Story Theater (also the location of Actors’ Theatre’s recent staging of McDonagh’s sold-out run of The Beauty Queen of Leenane) is truly making this a ticket not to miss.
This SouthSide Theater Company production is directed by Andrew Williams (Hedwig and the Angry Inch) and presented using a little-employed alley-styled staging where the audience is seated across from each other, with the action happening between them along a long strip of stage.
In addition, The Pillowman set is purposefully rendered to feel like a child’s pop-up book with child-like rendering of the sets locations. The cast includes Dustin Wilfert, Chris Kotcher, Adam Hyde, Jesse Aukeman, Steven Anderson, Cera Drake, and Julie Lauer.
The action at this intimate venue will drift back and forth as the actors almost never leave the stage over the course of this nearly two-hour, three-act show with only one intermission.
And should anyone become worried about the casting of 12-year-old Julie Lauer in such a dark production where she plays multiple roles, you should not worry, according to Jordon Carnegie, who assures me that she has been in numerous productions and has parents who have acted in theatre over the years. “She’s been around theatre people her whole life,” says Carnegie. “She gets this stuff is not real.”
Admission: $15 General Admission, $10 Students
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