Review: The Pillowman, Alma Tavern

Written by Martin McDonagh, The Pillowman is a black comedy set in totalitarian state in the near future, where a writer of short stories is being interrogated by two police officers who have found startling similarities between his stories and the murders of three young children.

This is not a play for the faint-hearted, with some dark and gruesome discoveries to be made. As the play progresses, we learn why the writer Katurian (Chris Levens) can conjure up such macabre stories, most memorably in the second act when he talks about his disturbing family history directly to the audience.

A confession from Katurian is sought by the good cop, bad cop routine of Tupolski and Ariel, played by Adam Elms and Adam Jones. Elms injects some sharp comedy into the analytic Tupolski, while Elms is a sinister presence as Tupolski, with violence often only a heartbeat away.

We also meet Katurian’s backwards brother Michal, who reveals some troubling secrets and is played with subtlety by Tim Thornton; and in a moment of glorious randomness at the end of the night, Betty Khiavi bounces onto the stage credited in the programme only as Girl, with her face painted green before disappearing as swiftly as she arrived.

Presented by Small Moving Parts, a theatre company with close links to UWE, The Pillowman will certainly not be to everybody’s tastes. While the material was not to my liking, the actors performed with skill, in particular Levens (last seen on these pages as one of the cast of Eight, also at the Alma Tavern) in a strong central role and Elms, flitting from good cop to bad cop in the blink of a comedy roll of the eyes.

The Pillowman is named after a character that Katurian invents, a bogeyman-type figure who introduces himself to adults when they are about to commit suicide and gives them the opportunity to instead commit suicide as a child, thereby preventing them from living whatever tragic life that has led them to this point.

I wish a version of the pillowman had come to visit me before this show, preventing me from being in attendance for a much too long three-hour three-act play. For me, the show was as tortuous of Katurian’s own inner torment and I could have done with joining the dead body count long before the end.

The Pillowman is at the Alma Tavern Theatre, Alma Vale Road, Clifton, Bristol until June 18. Click here for more information.