Rating: Suitable for ages 16+ Duration: 120 minutes (no interval)
A few words about the play Written in 2003 by Martin McDonagh, the enfant terrible of the British stage, “The Pillowman” is a riveting black comedy. In an unspecified totalitarian state, a writer and his mentally retarded brother are interrogated by two policemen when similarities come to light between the writer's dark stories and a series of real-life child murders. A labyrinth of narratives in which illusion and reality, past and present, intersect to form a complex, fascinating and terrifying tale about life, art, politics, society, violence and creativity. “The Pillowman” won the Olivier Award for Play of the Year, the New York Drama Critics Award, and two Tonys. It has been translated into more than ten languages.
Director’s Note We are born, we grow up, we live, we laugh, we change, we love, we hope... We hope to grow, to live, to laugh, to change, to leave, to forget... But how easy is it to forget? To forget how much you grew, how much you suffered, how much you feared, how deeply you were damaged? How easy is it to root traumas out of your childhood soul—traumas that are cursed to determine the rest of your life? How easy is it to go back to where it all begins... to “Once upon a time...”? An outstanding play that tackles the violence against children which moulded Katurian and which he wrote into stories. Stories with kids, not for kids. Some of them funny and tender, some hard, like the sounds he heard coming out of the locked room next to his every night... Which gives rise to the approach we take in our production, which asks: where does reality stops and the stories begin? Or vice versa... A black and white set with two rooms separated by an invisible wall. A wall that has divided and defined the two since they were boys... A wall that can only be breached with imagination, only be demolished by the hands of the huge man made entirely of pink feather pillows. Once upon a time, a healthy little boy called Michal Katurian was born... Once upon a time, Katurian Katurian tried to think up a story about his brother…
Mary Andreou
Credits Translation: Christina Bampou-Pagkoureli, Direction - Sets - Coctumes: Mary Andreou, Music: Giannis Tsemperlidis, Lighting: Stelios Tzolopulos, Video: Athina Sotiroglou, Evangelina Karyofilli, Movement: Evanthia Sofronidou, Assistant to the directors: Evanthia Sofronidou, Evaggelina Kariofilli, Second Assistant to the director: Nikos Tsoleridis, Production coordinator: Marily Ventouri Cast: Spyros Sarafianos (Tupolski), Giannis Tsemperlidis (Katurian), Grigoris Papadopoulos (Ariel), Christos Stylianou (Michal), Evangelina Karyofilli (Green Little Girl)