THE PILLOWMAN by Couch Theatre

“The Pillowman“

Reviewer: Andre Joseph Theng
Performance: 19 July 2014

It can hardly be considered a pleasant evening when the 3-hour play is a story about stories of gruesome and revolting (razor blade in throat, toes chopped of; you get the idea) child murders. It is even less pleasant when these stories don’t just exist on the page, but actually happened in “real life”.

Described as a dark comedy, Couch Theatre’s production of The Pillowman at the Drama Centre Black Box certainly is very dark, and a little less so a comedy. Katurian (Lim Shien Hian), a writer who has been arrested for committing a series of murders which parallel short stories he had previously written. However, some of the murders were actually carried out by his autistic brother Michel (Shrey Bhargava), who “acts out” the murders Katurian had written.

They are arrested and interrogated by policeman Ariel (Ziyad Bagharib) and detective Tupolski (Uday Duggal). It can be described as “story-ception” where the play alternates between the present, where Katurian is being interrogated, and re-enactments of his stories. As the play progresses, one realises that it is not just about the stories of Katurian, but also those of Ariel and Tupolski as well.

The script by Irish playwright Matthew McDonagh is very clever, if not bizarre. It has won many awards, including the 2005 Olivier prize for best new play and due credit must indeed be given to a monumental piece of drama which effortlessly combined the gruesome themes with some humour. My only criticism is that the script is a tad too long, and the dialogue is sometimes repetitive.

My favourite actor of the night would be Bhargava’s portrayal of Michel. It is obviously not easy to portray an autistic adult but his characterisation was both multi-dimensional and convincing. Less impressive was Bagharib’s Ariel, who spoke with a rather strange accent and whose portrayal of Ariel was confusing and unclear.

Given the youth of Couch Theatre (both in the sense that Couch is a new theatre company, and also that it has been set up by young people), it was expected that all the actors, even those playing older characters, were a little too young for their roles and the production unfortunately does suffer a little as a result, despite attempts to transcend the production values of a school play.

In recent years, there has been an explosion of new theatre companies in Singapore, many of which have been set up by young enthusiasts. This is definitely a promising trend and has added much colour to the local theatre scene. Many of these groups, however, struggle to make it past their first production, and Couch’s multiple productions already sets it apart from these new companies.

If anything, this group of young people so passionate about theatre should be commended for their ambition – no less than six shows and a two-week run of an ambitious script. Despite some rough edges, this production has certainly made Couch Theatre a company to watch out for in the near future.