Martin McDonagh is a playwright that doesn’t skimp on blood and swearwords in his plays. His play, “The Pillowman,” certainly is filed with these elements as it chronicles the final hours of Katurian Katurian (Derek Gasper), a writer who’s stories frequently feature gruesome fates that befall children, as he is interrogated by Detective Tupolski (Chris Rickett) and Officer Ariel (James Gasber) for crimes being committed that resemble the fates in his stories.
The production that is presently being performed at the Greenhouse Theatre Center under the direction of Jenn BeVard features a terrific set designed by Williams G. Wever, which utilizes the entire space and transforms it into a dark, dank cell that looks unkept. Even the pillars in the mainstage space at the Greenhouse have been made to look like rough gray and blue concrete structures.
Unlike the set, which remains constant throughout the entire play, BeVard’s production is rather uneven. For most of the first scene, Gasber and Gasper are very stiff onstage and while Gasber is very cold and menacing in the first scene (bad cop) and Rickett is not very menacing (good cop), we never get to see any depth from Gasber until the final scene, where we learn a bit about Ariel’s personal life. The problem with Gasper’s performance is that when Katurian does three murders before the audience’s own eyes, it is difficult to believe that he would actually kill those people because he never seems repulsed or enraged by the actions of his victims to be capable of killing them. The third scene of the first half, which is Act Two, Scene One in McDonagh’s text, begins with Katurian being tortured offstage. The screams heard offstage aren’t terrifying and Gasper seems perfectly fine after being tortured, except for some blood coming from his ear, which doesn’t make sense because of how cruel and tough Ariel seems.
The second scene in the first half, or Act One, Scene Two, is a brilliantly staged scene as Katurian tells the story “The Writer and the Writer’s Brother,” a semi-autobiographical story about a boy who is nurtured by his parents to be a good writer while his parents torture his brother (Kaitlyn Griggs). BeVard has the mother (Kelsey Jorissen) and father (Daniel Dvorkin) moving in an almost dance-like manner as they wheel around a bright bed with toys underneath and another bed that has machines underneath it and smile, making the characters appear to be lacking in remorse as they torture one of their children. The final scene is also very well done as the actors show more sides of their characters.
But the show falls flat on its face in the third scene of the first half, where most of the action occurs between Katurian and his brother Michal (Michael Olavson), who is brain-damaged due to the torture he endured as a child. Olavson plays the role as though Michal is a stereotypical individual with Down Syndrome, which is not the same thing as having brain damage and being mentally and developmentally behind. This portrayal, due to its one-dimensional nature, also fails to make the scene work and only has emotion being shown from Katurian.
Another stumbling block also results from Mike Ross’ sound design. While the sounds heard before the show are terrifying, the noises that he adds during the stories that are told by the characters are only distracting, particularly during “The Little Jesus,” which is acted out at the beginning of the second half of the show. While what is occurring in the story is revolting, the sound of “Ave Maria” on the speakers is distracting and makes the actions less horrific.
Although BeVard’s production has some weak points, the final scene is so well done, particularly in the last few minutes, that it makes it a satisfying evening of theater that also manages to be engaging for an entire two-and-a-half hours.
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