If you're a regular theatergoer, you must see "The Pillowman" at the Booth Theater. If your Broadway experiences are reserved for special occasions, this is probably not the show for you unless you especially
enjoy the sick, depraved and perverted. This doesn't especially mean you won't appreciate — even enjoy — "The Pillowman" even if you're not a fan of shows that thrive on the perverse. Why is
the audience laughing when brutal, gory deaths are being described? Why are we at one moment enmeshed in word games and then suddenly catapulted into a sea of senseless violence? The answers lie in the brilliance of playwright Martin McDonagh, who has created creepily sadistic
stories within the story. If The Pillowman is intended to have a moralistic backbone, it would be news to me. It's hardly a comedy, although there are very funny moments; and it's not a tragedy… but then again it is. It's chilling; it's confrontational; it's a completely
engaging experience. The setting is a mythical totalitarian nation where two brothers are interviewed in a drab, dreary cell by two police detectives who are investigating a series of eerie murders. The murders
resemble children's stories written by Katurian K. Katurian (Billy Crudup) and unearthed by detectives Zeljko Ivanek and Jeff Goldblum. Exceptional performances are required and delivered, especially
by Ivanek and Crudup. The Pillowman is brilliantly contrived, from the set to the characters, from the direction to the eerie murderous stories. If you decide to see "The Pillowman," pay particular attention to the exceptional scenic design by Scott Pask which shifts seamlessly from dark
and murderous to enchanted and whimsical, and the lighting by Brian MacDevitt. "The Pillowman" is unlike anything you've seen before, except perhaps in your own mind when you were two years old and a nasty uncle read Mother Goose's most depraved verses. Again, regular
theatergoers won't want to miss it. The contest between "The Pillowman" and "Doubt" is the battle to watch for Best Play this season.
Jack Myers Entertainment Report's entertainment rating system is based on a maximum of five jacks and a minimum of zero jacks. 0 = awful; 1 = pretty bad; 2 = okay
but don't go out of your way to see it; 3 = reasonably good but not special; 4 = very good and worth paying
attention to; 5 = exceptional. Opinions are based on my own likes, dislikes and preferences.
