The Pillowman

"A dystopian, totalitarian state. Katurian, a writer who has written over four hundred stories, has been brought in for interrogation by two police officers. They wish to question him regarding his suspected involvement in the murder of two children, who were killed in near-identical fashion to those featured in Katurian's tales. As the mystery unravels, The Pillowman offers a hilarious yet heart-breaking examination of the power of storytelling, companionship, and family."

The Pillowman is a hilarious dark comedy from Irish playwright Martin McDonagh. Having come across the play during my time doing Drama & Theatre A-Level, I was keen to be able to put on the show for myself. After pitching it to the society at the end of my second term at University, the show was selected for performance as the last show of the year.

I really wanted this interpretation of The Pillowman to be different from anything else done before in the Drama Barn, so for me it was incredibly important that the show be put together with a unique design in-mind from the get-go. Having always been a fan of the style of Film Noir, this is the route I chose to explore. I felt this nicely matched the interrogation-room setting of the play. Throughout the story, the main character, Katurian, narrates a number of his tales to the audience, and I wanted these sections to have their own unique feel - taking inspiration from sources such as German Expressionism for the creepy, robotic movements and unnerving visuals that the genre primarily made use of. This led to two very different, very unique, yet entirely compatible design concepts working in tandem throughout the production. Thankfully, I had an insanely talented production team who were willing to put the time and effort in to help me realise the ideas I had in my head - which included a 6'8", fully operable Pillowman puppet with a light-up face, a battery-powered black crucifix with inset LEDs, as well as the most complicated re-rigging of the performance space that has been seen in the Barn this year.