The Pillowman

I can't remember when was the last time I watched a play, which is rather disgusting considering the fact that I intend to minor in Performance and Theatre and that I'm already doing my second module in Drama! It was therefore apt that I got wowed, along with Ros, Yiling and Chun Yan, by such a fantastic play.



The Pillowman stars Adrian Pang, Daniel Jenkins, Michael Corbidge and Shane Mardjuki, all of whom were brilliant and brought magic to the stage. Every character was dark, sick and twisted... to such an extent that it was so real. It explored various themes such as child abuse and it made us all think of whether it was that painful growing up and if we'd do it all over again if we knew that it sucked. The catch was that I learned a lot about playwriting itself from this play as the playwrite made his opinions on writing known through one of the characters, Katurian, who wrote 400 twisted short stories. Katurian made statements like the fact that writers who were only comfortable with writing what they aren't good with imagination, and probably when he dies, the only thing that's of any worth left is his writing.

The pacing was tight, and it didn't feel like 2 hours 45 minutes at all! It was climax after climax, punch after punch. I could feel myself understanding everything that was going on, but scratching my head at what more the second half could offer. When it started again after intermission, it felt as if I was taking a crazy rollercoaster ride and held my breath countless times, as if it was taking me straight into a wall, or about to throw me out when it went upside down.

It was exhilarating.

And we agreed that the script must've been crazily thick! There's so much juice, so much content in there that revealing it here in parts and pieces which just do injustice to the story because it's so tightly knitted and woven!

Okay, so maybe I can say somethings about it. As mentioned there's the writer. And then there's his mentally retarded brother, Michal, who was guilty of the things that Katurian was charged for. Adrian Pang and Shane Mardjuki acted as police who were trying to get to the bottom of the crimes.

The twists and turns were phenomenal!

So. I haven't been to many plays, but I've been through enough movies, TV shows etc. to appreciate good acting and story-telling. There are reasons why this play has been so wildly popular with the critics and public alike. I wanted to watch it again, but it's already sold out.

Okay, then again I would be crazy to spend another $50 on it, but the experience was just mind-blowing.



That was the exact word I used to describe how I felt after the entire thing was over. We managed to take a photo with Michael (who, by no coincidence is our playwriting tutor) and chatted with him for awhile with regards to the play. It really gave me an idea of how a successful play is like and allowed me, as well as my classmates to apply all we've learned in the past 2 semesters, into analysing the play.



Which was the other more intellectual thing we did other than cam-whoring while waiting for Ros' boyfriend to come fetch us back to hall! Haha...

I'm inspired to write already!