The Pillowman - in Philadelphia

The Pillowman, by Martin McDonagh (a hero to most contemporary theatre-lovers) is one of my all-time favorite plays. I don't know if anything will ever shake me to the core, and make me feel like I first felt after seeing the Broadway production last year. The entire cast was BRILLIANT - especially Billy Crudup and Michael Stuhlbarg (my personal favorite in the show). But when I first saw the show, I didn't keep a theater blog, and I'm pretty excited to get a few thoughts down now.

So - a new production of the play is running at the Wilma Theater in Philadelphia. That's right, I actually visited Kevin's new city in order to see theater! It was a nice production, but I found myself often comparing it to the Broadway version. Saxon Palmer (recently in Measure for Pleasure at the Public) plays the main character, Katurian Katurian (that's right..) and he plays the part well. Billy Crudup was in the original cast and I think that Palmer drew a lot of comparisons to the way Crudup played the role..very affected and externally showing pain and emotion pretty heavily. The rest of the cast was nicely rounded out. I tell you though, this production made me realize how much I really admire Michael Stuhlbarg for his original role of Michal (Katurian's brother) in the Broadway version. The man is amazing and did things with that character that shook me to the core.

Well, I won't give away the plot - save to say that it's fantastic writing and some pretty disturbing stories involving children. If you can't get around to watching a production of The Pillowman - I highly suggest buying the play and reading it over and over - you won't be disappointed.