Keep the Night Light on for "The Pillowman"

"The Pillowman"

Written by Martin McDonagh; directed by Rick Lombardo; scenic design by John Howell Hood; costume design by Frances Nelson McSherry; lighting design by John Malinowski; original music by Haddon Givens Kime; sound design by Rick Lombardo; fight direction by Robert Walsh

Cast in order of appearance:

Katurian, John Kuntz
Tupolski, Steven Barkhimer
Ariel, Phillip Patrone
Mother, Rachel Harker
Father, Stephen Cooper
Michal, Bradley Thoennes
Girl, Rebecca Stevens
Boy, Matthew Scott Robertson

Performances: Now through October 1
Box Office: 617-923-8487 or www.newrep.org

Once upon a time, in a regional theater outside of Boston, four fine actors playing a traumatized storyteller, his mentally challenged brother, and two deranged detectives stunned their audiences with the disturbing and frighteningly funny tale of what happens when a serial killer acts out the details of three macabre child murders contained in a collection of bizarre bedtime stories. While the play was brilliant, the performances stellar, and the production taut and thought provoking, no one lived happily ever after.

Thank goodness "The Pillowman" is a comedy.

The New Rep's artistic director Rick Lombardo and his very talented cast and crew have captured the twisted genius of Anglo-Irish playwright Martin McDonagh exquisitely. They ably recreate McDonagh's mythical totalitarian police state and populate it with damaged individuals who are neither all good nor all evil.

At the center of "The Pillowman" is the impassioned writer Katurian (John Kuntz), a teller of tales which, save for one gentle childhood fable about a green piglet, end in the gruesome victimization of children. When three of his stories come vividly to life, he and his suspected brother Michal (Bradley Thoennes) are arrested, tormented and tortured by a menacingly comic good cop/bad cop team (Steven Barkhimer and Phillip Patrone). As the interrogation proceeds, lines between right and wrong, freedom and censorship, and innocence and responsibility blur. Should the writer be held accountable for the copycat actions of one of his readers? Is a government that protects children by burning manuscripts and murdering murderers acceptably self-righteous or hypocritically paranoid? Are heinous child abusers who were once themselves victims of despicable child abuse to be punished or pitied? "The Pillowman" eloquently raises these difficult questions and then refuses to answer them.

As the writer Katurian, John Kuntz is an impassioned storyteller who is called upon to recite aloud key tales from his vast collection of horrific, and therefore unpublished, children's books. In so doing, Kuntz both mesmerizes and stuns the audience with his gentle interpretations of unspeakable acts. He opens a window into his and his brother's grisly childhood with a straightforward simplicity that is devilishly laced with a wry and lightly vengeful humor. He makes us wonder – do his writings give him sufficient catharsis for his past, or does he take his imaginings one step further and actually perpetrate the crimes he claims are merely fiction?

Bradley Thoennes as his brain damaged brother Michal also modulates his performance to maintain the trademark suspense that McDonagh brilliantly weaves into "The Pillowman." His man/child is cuddly and endearing at times, in particular when Kuntz softly tells him his favorite bedtime stories while stroking his shaved and scarred head. In other moments, he's chillingly, albeit naively, blunt about his view of his life and the influence that his brother's writings have had on him. Together Kuntz and Thoennes give a heartrending portrayal of family life at its dysfunctionally loving best.

In support, Steven Barkhimer gives one of his all-time best performances as the seemingly sympathetic but ultimately sadistic "good" cop, detective Tupolski. He deftly maneuvers through the schizoid personality shifts of the play's most challenging character by delivering outrageously deadpan humor one minute and terrifyingly fascist platitudes the next. His own convoluted and autobiographical fable about a child being saved from a terrible death is at once pathetic and uplifting. It is just one of many brilliantly crafted speeches by McDonagh presented with tremendous insight and dexterity.

Barkhimer's partner in brutal crime-solving, Phillip Patrone, is equally impressive as Ariel. At first blush Patrone's Ariel is a bumbling, blood-thirsty avenger who would rather dispense with the formalities of interrogation and cut right to the execution. But, as with all of McDonagh's characters in "The Pillowman," Ariel is more than he first appears to be. Over the course of the play Patrone moves from unlikable comic book foil to unlikely anti-hero.

In staging "The Pillowman," the New Rep continues its commitment to presenting important, if challenging, new works. The subject matter is admittedly harsh and the vivid storytelling distasteful at times. But Lombardo's skillful direction and his cast's superb performances find the soft underbelly in McDonagh's penetrating, poetic, daunting, and haunting script.

For a riveting, and ultimately touching, serio-comic commentary on intensely intersecting issues of our time, "The Pillowman" is a must see. Once you get home from the theater, however, you may want to give your children an extra gentle kiss on the forehead – and leave the night light burning in your own bedroom, as well.

PHOTO CREDITS:

1) John Kuntz as Katurian tells one of his stories to Bradley Thoennes as Michal

2) Phillip Patrone as Ariel and Steven Barkhimer as Tupolski play good cop/bad cop with John Kuntz as Katurian

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