The Pillowman

The Woodlawn ventures into a dark alley for an encounter with The Pillowman, a black comedy stemming from fairy tales director Martin McDonagh wrote early in his career. Set largely in a courtroom in a nameless totalitarian state reminiscent of a Kafka novel, the Olivier- and Tony-winning play centers around the predicament of Katurian, a writer of gruesome stories detailing violence against children, and his brother Michal, whose history as a victim of child abuse has rendered him “slow to get things.” When actual murders begin to resemble Katurian’s grisly tales, the brothers find themselves at the mercy of good cop Tupolski and bad (and even brutal) cop Ariel. Likened in the play to a how-to guide of “101 ways to skewer a five-year-old,” Katurian’s fictional works — including The Little Apple Men, The Tale of the Town on the River, and The Little Jesus — come to life onstage through reenactments complete with severed body parts. With elements The New York Times described as “appallingly funny,” The Pillowman presents a “puzzle without a solution” while ultimately warning of the powers and dangers of storytelling.