ACT Theatre Opens 42nd Season with Seattle Premiere of The Pillowman

ACT Theatre will open its 42nd season with Martin McDonagh's The Pillowman.   The recent Broadway smash makes its Seattle/>/> debut under the direction of ACT Artistic Director Kurt Beattie.directed by ACT. Previews begin March 17th, with a March 23^rd opening.
 

"The Pillowman is one of the most electrifying and talked about plays of the last decade," says Beattie. "At just 35 years old, Martin McDonagh has emerged as one of the great theatrical imaginations of his generation, a startling and original combination of J.M. Synge, Harold Pinter and Quentin Tarantino."
 

"The play," he continues, "is a postmodern Gothic whodunit about a writer of grim fairy tales, the power of storytelling, and the relationship between the creative imagination and the state. It engages us at a very dark, very primal level that makes for an unforgettable theatrical experience.  I promise you it's unlike anything you've ever seen, and it will keep you up at night long after it's over."
 
The Pillowman centers on a storyteller/writer whose macabre fairy tales may be inspiring a series of grisly crimes. The Pillowman opened on Broadway on April 10^th, 2005, and featured Billy Crudup and Jeff Goldblum in the cast. It received 6 Tony Award Nominations, winning 2 for Scenic and Lighting Design.

McDonagh received an Evening Standard Award nomination and the Olivier Award for Best Play for The National Theatre production, and a 2005 Tony Award nomination.  McDonagh's first play, The Beauty Queen of Leenane, received a Best Play Tony Award nomination in 1997 and was the first in his Leenane Trilogy, which also  includes A Skull in Connemara (which played at ACT in 2000) and The Lonesome West, for which he received his second Tony Award nomination for Best Play.
 
The cast features Matthew Floyd Miller as Katurian, Denis Arndt as Tupolski, R. Hamilton Wright as Ariel,  Shawn Telford as Michal, Ian Bell as Father, Julie Briskman as Mother, Corina Boettger as Little Girl, an Joshua Froebe as Boy.

The design team includes Mathew Smucker (sets), Marcia Dixcy Jory (costumes), Mary Louise Geiger (lights), Dominic CodyKramers (sound), and Adam Stern (composer)

ACT's season will continue with Christopher Durang's Miss Witherspoon, Alice Childress' classic play Wine in the Wilderness, the world premier of Elizabeth Heffron's Mitzi's Abortion, Steve Martin's comedy The Underpants, and Caryl Churchill's A Number.  In  addition, the Gate Theatre of Dublin's production of Samuel Beckett's Waiting for Godot will be offered in celebration of Beckett's 100^th birthday year in collaboration with Seattle Theatre Group at the Moore Theatre. ACT will also present their 31st annual production of the holiday classic, Charles Dickens' A Christmas Carol

The Pillowman runs from March 17^th to April 16^th. For tickets call (206) 292-7676, or visit www.acttheatre.org