Troubled Youth
by HOLLY WALL (Urban Tulsa Weekly), 11/15/2006
The Theatre Club opened its production of The Pillowman to a captive audience of 14 at the Nightingale Theater Thurs., Nov. 9 at 8pm.
The Pillowman, by Martin McDonagh, tells the story of Katurian Katurian, a writer in an unnamed totalitarian state, being interrogated about the gruesome murders of three children.
The play opens with Katurian, played by Brian Rattlingourd, seated blindfolded, Detectives Tupolski (Craig Walter) and Ariel (Randy Whalen) circling him in synchronization. A typical game of good cop/bad cop ensues with Ariel, who looks like he just got out of prison himself, playing the "bad" cop, the one chomping at the bit to beat the shit out of Katurian to get him to talk, and a grey suit-clad Tupolski playing the "good" cop.
Although Tupolski is more mild-mannered, you also get the feeling he is more manipulative than the straight-forward Ariel. He's sneaky and sarcastic, twisting Kaurian's words around inside his own head so not even he knows what he's trying to say.
At first, you don't know why Katurian is being interrogated, and neither does he. You know, though, that the detectives do not like Katurian's stories, almost all of which involved the gruesome torture and death of an innocent child.
"The Little Apple Men," for example, is about a little girl who is beaten and tortured by her father. She carves little men out of apples and gives them to him but tells him he may not eat them because they are a sign of his daughter's affection, knowing, of course, that he will eat the little apple men and be killed by the razor blades hidden inside.
That night, though, when the little girl is asleep, she wakes to find little apple men marching up her chest. They force themselves inside her mouth, and she is killed by razors sliding down her throat.
The detectives ask Katurian to read another story, called "The Tale of the Town on the River," a twist on the Brothers Grimm's "Pied Piper of Hamelin". In it, a little boy shares with a traveler half of his meager lunch, and the traveler cuts off the little boys toes; it is Katurian's version of how the little boy in the "Pied Piper" became lame and could not follow the other children who were seduced by the piper and sealed in a cave.
After the telling of these stories, you discover why Katurian is being held; two of the children found murdered were murdered in the same fashion as the children in these stories; the detectives even have a little blue box with a child's toes in it, found inside Katurian's house. The other child has not yet been discovered, and the detectives believe Katurian, responsible for the first two deaths, knows where the third little girl's body is.
You also learn that the police also have Katurian's brother Michal in custody; Michal is severely brain damaged due to the horrific torture his parents inflicted on him for eight years of his life; all the while showering Katurian with their utmost love and affection in some sick psychological experiment.
I'm not going to tell you about the second act, except to say this -- it began slowly, and at first, I wondered if it was even necessary. But it does contain the only part of the play that has any humanity at all. And although parts of it were predictable, the ending wasn't what I was expecting.
The Pillowman is difficult to explain, but the play speaks for itself, and I suggest seeing it. The play's director, Scott Heberling, said it was a show he and the rest of the Theatre Club knew they'd be performing from first read of the script. Heberling is a fan of McDonagh's work and has produced three of his plays, including The Pillowman, for local community theaters.
Theatre Club is notorious for choosing work that is, to say the least, unorthodox and at times, like with The Pillowman, downright disturbing. That's why Heberling says he doesn't get too upset when the house is less than packed.
"With what we do, we don't expect a big audience anymore because we're not doing big-name shows or because people read a little bit about it and realize there are child killings in it," Heberling said. "We don't expect a large audience, and we don't get upset when they're not there. The people who do see it get a lot out of it."
And the actors work just as hard, too, as if the house were packed, and though it's not perfect--no stage show ever is, and that's half of what makes it so exciting to watch; it's different every night--it's a good show, and it's worth seeing. At times, some of the acting seemed forced, especially when there was extreme anger involved, but the pain was always real and the show was never bad.
You'll have a chance to check it out for yourself this weekend. The Pillowman continues at the Nightingale Theater, 1416 E. 4th Street. Nov/ 16 through 18. Show starts at 8pm, and tickets are $10. For more information, call 557-8012.