Pillowman

Writer: Martin McDonagh

Director: Martin Dunster

Theatre: Duke of York theatre

Full disclosure... I left this production during the interval. That should already give some indication of my overall opinion but I just wanted to make it clear incase the second half was a complete transformation from the first (I very much doubt it was). I've never left a play early before and, truth be told, I would have stayed to the end had I not felt guilty for the poor fellow I'd convinced to come along with me to watch this. But I don't regret my decision. Nor probably do the other third of the audience who also left. This was not a good adaptation.

I originally bought my ticket for this production back in 2019 with high anticipation of seeing Aaron Taylor-johnson take on the lead role of Katarian. Covid had other ideas and I had to wait three years to see my favourite play in the flesh.... but this time with, Lily Allen?

I'm generally not fussed by gender swapping roles. As long as they work. This one didn't. A lot of that has to do with Allen's flat performance but the social dynamics between the characters take a shift that ruin the genius of the original text. Katarian's love for her brother Michal is a brother's love, not a sister's. Think if George in 'Of Mice And Men' was Georgina. It just doesn't work.  The same applies when violent detectives starts beating on Katarian. It's designed to show brute male dominance and yet here it just felt like he was a creepy woman beater. It just doesn't work.

Even if it did work, Allen would have struggled to sell it. I couldn't help but wonder how anyone thought she was ready for this. Or how the director, Martin Dunster, couldn't at least find the emotional levels required for such a part. From the very first scene where she found herself on the end of the aforementioned police beating, her barely audible squeals failed to convince anyone that she was truly scared, or hurt, or worried, or... you get the idea.

Allen wans't the only one miscast. Matthew Tennyson's portrayal of Michal was equally frustrating. Michal should be 'Lennie' to Katorian's 'George', not some annoying teenage brat who struggles to meet the social norms expected of him. Tennyson's Michel fails to sell the story's main plot shift which should leave the audience shockingly moved by the end of Act One. 

On a positive note, Steve Pemberton and Paul Kaye are excellent as the bad cop/worse cop duo of Tuploski and Ariel. Act two would have maybe been saved slightly by their further involvement. But I doubt it. And I don't really care.

2/5 - If you're really stuck for something to do