By Neil Durham

WORTH A LOOK?: ****1/2

WHEN?: Friday 30 June, runs through 2 September 2023 RUNTIME: 145 minutes (including a 20-minute interval)

Returning Doctor Who David Tennant (Good, Harold Pinter Theatre) played writer Katurian in the original National Theatre production of this Martin McDonagh play and much has been made of the gender swap of this role now played by Lily Allen (2.22 A Ghost Story, Noel Coward Theatre).

• Read on for reasons including how The Pillowman is funny, dark yet hugely thought-provoking

We never saw Tennant in the role but think the seemingly effortless naturalism Allen brings here – a very different role to the sleep-deprived young mother that earned her an Olivier nomination in 2.22 – sits well with the fact that Katurian is seemingly innocent yet under arrest by police in a totalitarian state because her stories have inspired a copycat killer.

The Pillowman is now 20 years old and won the Olivier for Best New Play in 2003 yet, despite the passing of time, has lost none of its capacity to shock.

Author McDonagh is 1 of our favourite writers thanks to his extremely dark and bleak world view that can occasionally be very funny.

The Pillowman includes many of Katurian’s stories which manage to be even more grim than Grimm’s fairytales and we can see here the genesis of ideas including the cutting off of limbs which featured in McDonagh’s recent Oscar-nominated film The Banshees Of Inisherin and the imprisoned slave penning a celebrated author’s works in the very occasional misfire that was A Very, Very, Very Dark Matter at the Bridge Theatre.

The Pillowman actually feels quite suited to a film adaptation with its staged deaths reminiscent of David Fincher’s film Seven and comic interrogation scenes reminding of Tarantino’s Reservoir Dogs.

We’re here partly because we’re great admirers of the work of Steve Pemberton (Inside No 9, BFI) and here he plays senior policeman Tupolski interrogating Katurian who can hear her brother Michal (Michael Tennyson straddling the line between comic innocence and damaged insanity) being tortured by the sadistic cop Ariel, at this performance played not by Paul Kaye but his understudy Daniel Millar.

McDonagh is here reunited with Matthew Dunster, the director of his play Hangmen who gave us his Shirley Valentine courtesy of Sheridan Smith at this very theatre earlier this year, and there’s a straightforward clarity to his helming which is clearly well-suited to potentially difficult material brought before a mainstream audience.

Watch the Pemberton interview above and you’ll realise how little leeway McDonagh gives the cast to improvise yet fans of Pemberton’s work in Inside No 9 and The League Of Gentlemen (Eventim Apollo) will love the comic and bleak delivery so beloved in those shows.

The subject matter of violence against children and also how mistreatment can have long-lasting effects is troubling and not for everyone yet is used to convey the really strong message about the power of words to threaten a totalitarian state.

The Pillowman proves why McDonagh’s work will always have a Marmite-like, love-it or loathe-it quality, but we found it occasionally funny, horrifyingly dark and haunting yet hugely thought-provoking all in a massively spiky yet fascinating bundle.

• Main picture via Facebook courtesy ATG Tickets
• Have you seen a show starring Lily Allen or Steve Pemberton? Let us know what you thought in the comments below
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