Arts news and views : 'Pillowman' no fluff

'Pillowman' no fluff

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Anchorage Daily News

Posted: August 31, 2007 - 11:24 am

PILLOWMAN: Samuel LaFrance plays the role of Michal. Photo: Dan Anteau. PILLOWMAN: Samuel LaFrance plays the role of Michal. Photo: Dan Anteau.

By Maia Nolan

Summer’s over, and darkness is back. Just ask the members of Theatre on the Rocks, UAA’s student drama club, which tackles Martin McDonagh’s very creepy “The Pillowman” in an intense production that opened Friday night at the Jerry Harper Studio Theatre.

“The Pillowman” is an ambitious undertaking for a college theater department, but director Laure MacConnell and her cast prove they’ve got the chops to navigate its dark, churning waters.
Anchorage theatergoers may recognize McDonagh’s name from “The Lieutenant of Inishmore,” which was staged locally by Kokopelli Theatre Company last season. But be warned: “The Pillowman” is not “The Lieutenant of Inishmore.” Where gory, campy “Inishmore” doesn’t take itself too seriously, “The Pillowman,” while humorous, is also deeply disturbing.

The story of a writer, Katurian, taken into police custody when a series of local child murders appear to be patterned after his unpublished stories, “The Pillowman” is hard to categorize — part drama, part fantasy, part black (very black) comedy. Theatre on the Rocks’s production opens in a supremely creepy manner, all shadows and sinister music, but when Danny Jones strides onstage as Detective Tupolski and waves his badge in front of the prisoner — only to notice that the prisoner is still blindfolded — it’s a cue to the audience: Yes, it’s okay to laugh.

(If there is a young actor in town more engaging and likeable than Jones, who also delivered a standout performance in “Inishmore,” he is keeping a very low profile.)

Jon Minton is a delicate and empathetic Katurian, one of two actors alternating in the role on different nights. (The other is Anthony Oliva). He delivers a tenderness that is in sharp contrast to the violence unfolding around him. Minton is well matched with Jones as his somewhat-sympathetic interrogator. Every good cop, of course, needs a bad cop, and the bad cop here is Detective Ariel, played earnestly though sometimes overzealously by Stuart Matthews. Samuel LaFrance brings both levity and substance to the role of Michal, Katurian’s mentally disabled brother. LaFrance, a 19-year-old sophomore at UAA, demonstrates a maturity many older actors would be hard pressed to replicate.

Friday night had some stumbling over dialogue, unfortunately in key scenes, but the performances were uniformly good and the actors seemed quite comfortable onstage. The blocking feels natural and organic, likely because of the collaborative process MacConnell appears to have employed in staging the play — according to the program notes, the physical action “evolved out of the discovery process” during rehearsals. While the play is notable for its violent themes, the stage fighting that does take place is far less effective than the undercurrent of fear and abuse that runs through the actors’ less-obvious movements.

The production makes considerable use of technical elements, including commendable lighting design by Peter Wallack. Shadowy figures behind a scrim contribute to the slow-boiling terror of the first act, although they’re used somewhat less effectively after the intermission. The venue also contributes to the mood, bringing the audience into a very uncomfortable, very effective intimacy with the onstage action.
Dark and disturbing as it is, “The Pillowman” features some truly excellent, not-to-be-missed performances.

Just don’t forget to plug in your nightlight.

Maia Nolan lives and writes in Anchorage.

THE PILLOWMAN will be presented by the UAA Theatre on the Rocks at 8 p.m.Thursday-Saturday and 3 p.m. Sunday through Sept. 9 at the Jerry Harper Studio Theatre, Fine Arts Building 129. Tickets, $10 at the door.

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