Decadent Theatre Company return to the Gaiety Theatre from 24 January until 5 February with Martin McDonagh’s critically acclaimed The Pillowman. This production of McDonagh’s tragicomedy, directed by Andrew Flynn, has already been seen by over 30,000 people and received standing ovations in theatres across the country. The Pillowman is the winner of two Tony Awards and received the Olivier Award for Best New Play in 2004 and Decadent Theatre’s latest production has been wowing critics and audiences all over Ireland.
The play takes place in an unnamed, totalitarian police state. It opens in a prison cell where a young writer called Katurian is being interrogated by two detectives called Ariel and Tupolski. Katurian’s stories often depict violence against children and he is being interrogated because a recent spate of child murders have drawn eerie parallels with his grisly stories. When Katurian hears that his brother Michal has confessed to the crimes, he resigns himself to execution but sets about saving his stories from destruction.
The Pillowman engages the audience through the interrogation of Katurian and the fantastical tales he creates. The uneasy laughter provoked by McDonagh’s gift for comedy never overrides the emotions of fear and pity felt for the young writer’s plight. McDonagh’s storytelling skill,combined with Decadent’s stellar cast and creative team, will keep the audience on the edge of their seat to the very last line. That stellar cast includes Diarmuid Noyes as Katurian, Owen Sharpe as Michal, Peter Gowen as Tupolski and Gary Lydon, who reprises his critically acclaimed role as Ariel.
Diarmuid Noyes is a talented young actor who has appeared on stage and screen. He has appeared in the films Killing Bono and Good Vibrations and the television series The Tudors and Pure Mule – The Last Weekend, for which he received an IFTA nomination for Best Supporting Actor. He has also appeared in numerous theatre productions, including The Shawshank Redemption, Borstal Boy and A Christmas Carol at the Gaiety Theatre.
Gary Lydon also appeared in Pure Mule and has appeared in various other Irish film and television programmes, including The Guard, which also featured Owen Sharpe, and RTE’s Love/Hate. He has also won two IFTA awards for Best Supporting Actor for his role as Patrick Murray in The Clinic. He also has extensive theatre credits to his name, including Waiting for Godot off Broadway and The Playboy of the Western World in the West End.
Peter Gowan has also appeared in Love/Hate, as well as starring alongside Aiden Gillen in RTE’s Charlie. He wrote and appeared in his one man show The Chronicle of Oggle at the Everyman Palace in his native Cork and across the rest of Ireland. He also recently appeared in Observe The Sons of Ulster Marching Towards The Somme at the Abbey Theatre and played Michael in Joe Dowling’s recent production of Dancing At Lughnasa at the Gate Theatre.
There is no doubt that Martin McDonagh is one of this generation’s most talented and important playwrights. His gift for language and the tension inspired by his sublime flair for plot come to the fore in The Pillowman and they override the emotions of fear and never let the black comedy of the work settle into complacency. This superb writing, combined with the sublimely talented cast that Decadent have put together make this production an unmissable event at the Gaiety Theatre.
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