Variety called it Playwright Martin McDonagh’s least forgiving and bravest play and we chose it for our third outing.

With echoes of Stoppard, Kafka, and the Brothers Grimm, The Pillowman centers on a writer in an unnamed totalitarian state who is being interrogated about the gruesome content of his short stories and their similarities to a series of child murders. The result is an urgent work of theatrical bravura and an unflinching examination of the very nature and purpose of art. Incorporating puppets and live actors, Saints and Poets Productions brought its own unique twist to McDonagh’s darkly comic tale.

“McDonagh introduces two worlds in The Pillowman: the “real” world of the protagonist and the imagined world of his stories. Stories which become the play’s most propulsive element,” said Co-Producer and Designer Kevin Christopher. “Incorporating puppetry to tell those stories both sets them apart from the other action of the play and helps to make them as vivid for the audience as they are for McDonagh’s characters.”

Produced at the Main Street Landing Black Box Theater, November 2011.