THE PILLOWMAN Set for Second Stage at Players Club of Swarthmore Tonight

The Players Club of Swarthmore presents The Pillowman, a comedy by Martin McDonagh, opening on Second Stage tonight, November 8, 2013. Second Stage plays are fully rehearsed, out-of-book, stageworthy productions with a minimum of scenery and costumes.

Martin McDonagh has his own unique style of black comedy in which the grisly details and violent interactions make you wince, or laugh, or both. The Pillowman fits that description to a T. It won the Laurence Olivier Award and the New York Drama Critics' Circle Award for best new play in 2004. The hero, Katurian, is a writer of gruesome short stories about child murders. When local crimes duplicate details of his stories, the police come calling. The outrageous interrogation that follows is set in a "police state," and the characters have foreign-sounding names, but the sly humor and soul-shaking desperation belong very much to McDonagh's native Ireland.

The Swarthmore production, directed by Dave Ebersole, features Ben Storey, Eric Jarrell, Phil Haggerty, Thomas Robert Irvin, Jillian Haas, Paul Them, and Stephanie Cowgill. It plays tonight and Saturday November 8, 9, 15, 16, 22, 23 at 8:00 p.m. and Sunday November 17 at 2:00 p.m. Admission is $10 at the door.

A wine and cheese reception will precede the performance tonight, November 8. Friday November 15 is dessert night: come at 7:30 to enjoy dessert and coffee before the performance. On Friday November 22, the audience is invited to meet the artists after the performance.

Second Stage productions play in the Raymond Smith Space, which is up a flight of stairs and not handicapped-accessible. The Pillowman is not recommended for pre-teens. For directions to the theater, call 610-328-4271 or visit www.pcstheater.org.

Pictured: Stephanie Cowgill of Philadelphia and Ben Storey of Philadelphia appear in in The Pillowman.