Written By Michelle F. Solomon
Originally published on artburstmiami.com
Remember sitting around a campfire listening to ghost stories? For me, it was the pitch black of the forest of the Pocono mountains, each storyteller trying to top the one before them with a yarn even more horrific. Zoetic Stage’s season opener provokes a similar feeling with its in-the-round production of British playwright Martin McDonagh’s “The Pillowman” running through Sunday, Nov. 10 at the Carnival Studio in the Adrienne Arsht Center for the Performing Arts, Miami.
Director Stuart Meltzer leads a first-rate South Florida cast of four main players in the dark horror comedy that follows in the genre’s footsteps of previous Zoetic offerings, “Frankenstein” in 2021 and “Dracula” in 2018. “The Pillowman” is a harder pill to swallow but once the medicine goes down, the play and the production is so shockingly good it’s worth every spine-tingling, devil-may-care unbridled moment. It may not be to everyone’s taste but for those willing to get out of their theater comfort zone, it’s worth the ride.
The playwright, whose “The Pillowman” was nominated for a Tony Award when it was produced on Broadway in 2005 and winner of Best New Play in London’s 2004 Olivier Awards, takes gleeful pleasure in goading his audience with ghastly stories. There’s the tale of “The Little Jesus,” for instance, which describes the torment of a child forced by sadistic foster parents because of her love for Jesus to wear a crown of thorns and carry a heavy cross until her legs break. There’s the yarn of “The Pillowman,” about a mythical pillowy creature who visits children a la the Tooth Fairy but there’s no comparison to the pixie. The pillowman convinces children to kill themselves, to get life over with early instead of ending up with the same fate later after they’ll be forced to lead dreadful unhappy adult lives.
In the play, the stories are mostly told by the person who has concocted them — a writer named Katurian K. Katurian (“My parents were funny,” he says, referring to his repeated name; we find out later his parents were also cruel), many of them unpublished except for one in a newspaper called The Libertad, despised by officials of the totalitarian state. The writer, played sincerely and deftly by Ryan Didato, has been brought in for questioning by police about the recent maiming and murder of children, many committed in an eerily similar style to Katurian’s twisted tales.
Is he under arrest because he’s offended the government or are they tying him to the crimes? “It isn’t a crime to write a story,” he tells the police.
Setting the dark action on a stark white circular stage with set design by B.J. Duncan and Rebecca Montero’s mood-inducing lighting, Meltzer captures the same juxtaposition that McDonagh achieves – a brilliant balance of disturbing stories with wry humor. In fact, Zoetic’s director instructs the audience before the play starts that there will be dialogue that will compel laughter and laugh you should – and will.
Two comically cruel cops, lead detective Tupolski (played by Michael McKeever) and his No. 2 Ariel (played by Gabriell Salgado, whose first professional role was as the creature in Zoetic’s “Frankenstein”) have brought the writer in for questioning.
There’s also Katurian’s mentally challenged brother Michal (a captivating performance by Seth Trucks), who is being held in another room. Michal loves his brother’s stories, growing up listening to them and, as an adult, still can’t get enough of them. We learn through the plot that dastardly deeds by the boys’ parents are what have caused Michel’s handicap and inspired Katurian’s stories.
At the core of the drama, as well, is how far will you go to protect your art. Katurian, at one point, confesses to murders and tells the police he will endure execution as long as his stories are preserved. The stories are his children, his babies, and he doesn’t want them to suffer the same cruel fate that the Pillowman” has instilled in others.
“It’s not about being dead,” he says, “it’s about what you leave behind.”
McDonagh, who may be more known to mainstream audiences for his 2022 film “The Banshees of Inisherin” starring Colin Farrell, evokes shades of Tom Stoppard with his brilliance in tragicomedy both in complex dialogue and wit and humor.
Both Meltzer and his cast adeptly handle the task, the actors playing off each other and Meltzer using his in-the-round staging to add tension.
