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Martin McDonagh’s The Pillowman is a strikingly vivid interrogation drama that has been staged with great success in the recent past. Next week audiences get another chance to glance into the mind of a man being questioned by authorities as the drama gets a fresh production with Soulstice Theatre. Bo Johnson directs the drama for Soulstice’s intimate studio theatre space.
Tim Palacek stars as a writer named Katurian who has been brought in for questioning. A series of murders bears a striking resemblance to stories he’s written. McDonagh’s tells stories within a story that form an breathtakingly dark, emotional journey. Palacek is an excellent choice for the role. He’s got a crisply poised intellectuality about him onstage that serves as a solid foundation for emotion. The author of many stories is being grilled by a couple of police officers played by Emmitt Morgans and Dylan Bolin. Morgans has appeared in a number of productions over the years. It’ll be interesting to see him in an imposing role like this. I associate Bolin with comedy more than this kind of intense drama, but the guy has a casual intensity about him that could easily serve drama just as well as it does comedy.
Soulstice Theatre’s production of The Pillowman runs April 16-May 2 at Soulstice’s space on 3770 S. Pennsylvania Ave. in St. Francis.
