The Pillowman - Duke of York's

I saw this yesterday evening, and my biggest takeaway is that Martin McDonagh may just be one of my favorite writers working today. I've seen and loved all his film work but this was my first time time seeing one of his plays, and I was delighted to find that his sense of humor had always been so f***ed-up.

I very much disagree with the Times reviewer who offhandedly compared the play's content to A Little Life. The violence in that play was so torturously repetitive and one-note that it just wound up being kinda tedious. The Pillowman, on the other hand, is closer in its presentation to an instalment of the Saw franchise; there's a morality tale-esque detachment that allows it to employ violence in amusing and aesthetically interesting ways. It's aware of its own self-indulgence, meaning the audience has permission to scoff and even laugh at its content. And while "Saw with aspirations" is certainly not a pitch that'll appeal to everybody, it's one that I can't resist.

I was surprised to read all the complaints about the cast. Paul Kaye and Steve Pemberton were on fire, building on each other's performances to convey a "coworkers for years, but definitely not friends" history. Kaye especially deserves praise for convincingly bridging the gap between "gentle, sincere defender of children" and "loud, violent, thug cop". Matthew Tennyson was equal parts heartbreaking and hysterical. And while Lily Allen was easily the weakest link in the cast, I have to disagree with the (seeming) consensus that her performance ruined the play or anything. She was functional - all the emotional beats and jokes were there, even if they weren't necessarily uplifted. I caught a matinee of The Crucible earlier in the day and personally I thought Milly Alcock was much more of a drag on her respective show.

A lot of this might be a product of me not knowing what I'm missing. When I saw Groundhog Day a few weeks back, the few minor downgrades from the original staging stuck out to me like sore thumbs, which probably soured me on the production more than was objectively warranted. Similarly, I imagine Lily Allen's performance would be immensely disappointing if the last person I'd seen in the role was goddamn David Tennant - but hey, with nothing to compare her to, I thought she was passable.

For me, the only significant issue was the pacing. The scene between Katurian and her brother goes on for ages, as does Tupolski's story in the second act (despite Pemberton's best efforts to make it entertaining). The dialogue is still witty and incisive; there's just too much of it. I'm guessing this is something McDonagh's got better at with experience, since his film writing is always snappy and concise.

All in all, a 4/5 for me. Very glad I caught it!

Well, it's all kicking off on Twitter with Shenton and Lily Allen!

Maybe it got better over the summer months? Maybe Lily Allen developed a third tone of line delivery? We saw it 24 June did not enjoy it all

*Also pretty goddamn unprofessional for a "critic" to impugn a show's quality (and the quality of a specific actress's performance) after smugly declaring he hasn't seen them.*

That was my take from reading all this last night/this morning.  And it's in The Metro too.  Dripping contempt, never attractive.

Is shenton a critic? He’s a blogger, at best