Set in a fictitious dictatorial regime, The Pillowman , written by Martin McDonagh, opens with a writer being interrogated for a series of child murders, bearing striking similarities with his stories. The detectives are ruthless and even drag the writer’s mentally challenged brother amid a tale of fantastical revelations. Primarily a thriller, The Pillowman has mystery, twists in plot, and doses of dark humour.
The Bengaluru-based director Puneet Gupta of Mad Hats Theatre says that he chose to stage The Pillowman as thrillers and plays of dark comedy aren’t frequently performed on stage. “I read it in January this year. After reading the first three pages, I couldn’t put it down! I knew there is something special about it. Written in 2003, it has bagged many awards and is a benchmark in theatre.”
To make the production even more captivating, Puneet has employed a mix of conventional and path-breaking styles of story telling, using shadow imagery. “As a basic plot line, the play seems like a murder mystery or crime thriller. But during the course of the investigation, a lot of the writer’s stories are read out. On one level, there are scenes in the investigation room, and on another level, there is another fantastical world of the writer’s imagination, where all his stories get played. Thus, the real and the imaginary co-exist.”
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Puneet, an alumnus of IIT, Delhi, brought together both his expertise as a theatre director and technical know-how into the execution of the production. “The play has the lines ‘the duty of a storyteller is to tell a story.’ The playwright adds: ‘but is that the only duty of a storyteller?’ I was inspired by these lines. I wanted my voice of a storyteller to be heard. So the direction has a lot of creative thinking and logical intervention. There is a physics of light and colour.”
The Pillowman will be staged as part of Jagriti Theatre’s Season 2016, from November 18 to 27, at 8 p.m. from Tuesday to Saturday and 3 p.m. and 6.30 p.m. on Saturday and Sunday. Tickets are available at the box office andwww.bookmyshow.com.