“Rivetting 2017 Season Opener engages with dark stories!”

Reviewer: Christian W. Huber
Performance: 7 March 2017

The revisiting of Martin Mcdonough’s The Pillowman succeeds in rattling many a spirit in the ‘grand dame’ – yet modernized, state of the art – Victoria Theatre. Performing to an almost filled 614 seater theatre, this hauntingly dark piece known for its macabre, grimmer-than-Grimm material is sure to make one laugh and unsettle the bejesus out of viewers, while also celebrating the power of writers, not only as storytellers, but as artists who encourage us to think.

This 2005 Laurence Olivier Award winner for Best New Play tells the tale of a writer in a totalitarian state interrogated by two detectives, who claim that his unpublished fairytales featuring children who meet violent ends are being used as a model for a serial killer.

The strong four-male cast piece deliver the goods – along with an ensemble of three (that reenact the gruesome tales) – of this funny, terribly dark and disturbing piece, which remains Martin Mcdonough’s most recognizable work worldwide.

Raising compelling questions about art, power, family, religion and the relationships between the four main characters, the viewer gets swept up with questions about the responsibility of the writer to society and himself, and the dangerous power of literature to one’s imagination. This timeless and utterly contemporary piece explains why writers are feared, as it reminds us that with the lack of freedom of speech, freedom of thought is unattainable.

Director Tracie Pang – along with her creative team – has created a theatrical cause célèbre. It is palatable for most, but with deadly razor blades underneath.

Two bravura performances deserve mention.

Daniel Jenkins as the writer Katurian is thoroughly convincing and engaging. His presence and journey onstage from the beginning through to the denouement 2 ¾ hours later is nothing but a tour de force.

A close second – one that this reviewer yearned to see more of – is the performance of Andy Tear playing Katurian’s brother, Michal. Playing the role of a mentally-challenged person with such playful innocence, Tear does not play to stereotype. His scene with Jenkins is poignant, funny, and completely devastating.

The performances of the detectives who interrogate / torture Katurian are commendable. Adrian Pang, ever reliable (and ever “Adrian Pang”) as Tupolski hams it up at times, but provides good nuance from time to time, which makes for good comic relief – though slowed the momentum – during the tensest of moments. Shane Marjuki’s Ariel is a slow burn to appreciate. His tough and goofball heavy of the first half is unlikeable, but his character softens during the second half.

Pangdemonium’s forte has been reviving millennial works that have seen success from the stages of the West. It would be – for this reviewer – good to see how their next offering comes from a local millennial writer, stepping out with the rest of them.

“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.