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Widely regarded as the greatest work of playwright-slash-filmmaker Martin McDonagh (‘The Cripple of Inishmaan’, ‘Hangmen’, ‘Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri’, ‘The Banshees of Inisherin’, etc), a West End run for 2003’s dark totalitarian satire ‘The Pillowman’ has been legendarily elusive. The original, David Tennant-starring production racked up wild acclaim at the National Theatre, but for whatever reason never transferred, instead going on to play a season on Broadway with a starry new American cast. A West End revival has been publicly mooted by McDonagh for aeons, and was finally scheduled for 2020 with Aaron Taylor-Johnson and Steve Pemberton starring… but the pandemic put paid to that, and Taylor-Johnson’s involvement.
Finally, in 2023 – the twentieth anniversary of the original production – it looks like it really will happen. The second-ever British production of ‘The Pillowman’ will be directed by Matthew Dunster, who has not only helmed most of McDonagh’s recent productions, but also the smash hit ‘2:22 - A Ghost Story’. That marked the Olivier-nominated stage debut for Lily Allen, and she’ll be back on the boards again to star as writer Katurian, a writer of short stories that depict violence towards children who is arrested by the totalitarian government on suspicion of a string of real-life murders.
The role was written as male and has historically been played by male actors, but swapping the gender isn’t really super controversial in terms of the plot. More important is how well Allen performs the part: she was great in a relatively emotionally limited role in ‘2:22’ – the storytelling Katurian will require more range. But if the famously protective McDonagh thinks she’s up to the job, we have every reason to hope that this homecoming for ‘The Pillowman’ will justify the two-decade wait.
‘The Pillowman’ is at the Duke of York’s Theatre, Jun 10-Sep 2 2023. Tickets go on sale at noon on Friday Nov 11 from here.
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