The Pillowman review: Lily Allen shines in Martin McDonagh’s jet black comedy revival

It says much for Lily Allen’s charismatic performance in The Pillowman, that we’re prepared to root for her despite the heinous nature of her apparent crimes. Empathic and engaging, Allen is Katurian K. Katurian, an abattoir worker and writer of sadistic fairytales.

Katurian pens twisty shorts about child murder and torture, about kids having their toes chopped off, being fed razor blades and crucified by sadistic parents. One such work of fiction features the Pillowman, a very Grimm creation who persuades children to kill themselves rather than suffer years of trauma in later life. Bleak.

The pairing of Paul Kaye and Steve Pemberton here is terrific, they’re a bravura double act…

The play opens with Allen under arrest in what appears to be a communist bloc police station. The good cop / bad cop combo of Paul Kaye and Steve Pemberton are interrogating her about her stories and their uncanny similarities to a rash of child murders in the town. Katurian protests her innocence. 

Kaye is Ariel, violent and unpredictable, Pemberton is Tupolski, sarcastic and manipulative. Between them they’re determined to discover Katurian’s involvement. The pairing of Kaye and Pemberton here is terrific, they’re a bravura double act.

Also under arrest is Michal (Matthew Tennyson), Katurian’s brother, warped by years of torture at the hands of his parents. What role does he play in this tortuous tableau?

Sharp, sinsister and surrealistic, The Pillowman turns on a dime. One minute the audience is laughing out loud at the gallows humour, the next there’s a sharp intake of breath as it takes a suffocating turn.

The subject matter is difficult, by any standard. Writer Martin McDonagh pushes boundaries, flouting topics that might kindly be deemed taboo. 

Best known as the award winning writer director of The Banshees of Inisherin, Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri and In Bruges, McDonagh, a multi-Olivier, BAFTA and Academy Award-winning playwright and screenwriter, treads a thin line.

McDonagh’s Olivier Award-winning Hangmen ran successfully in the West End and on Broadway.

The Pillowman made its debut in 2003, at the National Theatre’s Cottesloe, with David Tennant as Katurian, before transferring to Broadway, with Jeff Goldblum and Billy Crudup onboard.

This is its first West End bow, with its lead gender swapped.

McDonagh’s other plays include The Beauty Queen of Leenane, A Skull in Connemara, The Lonesome West, The Lieutenant of Inishmore, The Cripple of Inishmaan, A Behanding in Spokane and A Very Very Very Dark Matter.

The Pillowman reunites Lily Allen with director Mathew Dunster. It was in Dunster’s production of 2:22: A Ghost Story that the actor made her West End debut.

The production design by Anna Fleischle is cinematic and effective. The main station set, rolls forward then retreats, aping a cinematic zoom. Graphics and split screen techniques are used for flashbacks.

Aiding Fleischle are Lighting Designer Neil Austin and Sound Designer Ian Dickinson. Both contribute significantly to the production’s sombre mood.

Horrific yet laced with dark humour, in the vein of Inside No.9, The Pillowman provides an extraordinary night at the theatre. Expect to feel deeply uncomfortable.

The Pillowman runs at The Duke of York’s Theatre until September 2 2023.