New rehearsals photographs of Martin McDonagh’s electrifying and savagely funny Olivier Award-winning The Pillowman by Helen Murray were released today.
Lily Allen plays Katurian, a writer in a police state who is interrogated about the content of her short stories and their similarities to several murders occurring in the town. Steve Pemberton plays Tupolski with Paul Kaye as Ariel and Matthew Tennyson as Michal.
The cast is completed by Rebecca Lee (Mother and understudy Katurian), Daniel Millar (Father and understudy Ariel and Tupolski) Carlotta Di Gregori (understudy Mother) and David Angland (Blind Man and understudy Michal and Father). The role of Child 1 is shared by Ruby Siddle, Madelynne Mills and Sophia Cullingford, and the role of Child 2 is shared by Lexi Anna Scott, Darcy Crosby and Lillie Stocker.
The production will run at the Duke of York Theatre in London from 12 June to 2 September 2023, with a press night on 21 June. This West End premiere of The Pillowman is directed by Matthew Dunster.
Martin McDonagh recently won the Best British Film BAFTA award for his critically-acclaimed movie The Banshees of Inisherin, which also won the Best Screenplay Award at the Venice Film Festival and was nominated for nine Academy Awards. He is also the multi-Olivier, BAFTA and Academy Award-winning playwright and screen-writer responsible for Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri, In Bruges, Seven Psychopaths and Six Shooter.
McDonagh’s Olivier Award-winning Hangmen ran successfully in the West End and on Broadway. His 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.
Matthew Dunster is a theatre and film director and writer. He has directed or written over sixty shows, often with major national companies (including RSC, NT, Royal Court, Young Vic, Royal Exchange, Shakespeare’s Globe, The Bridge), as well as directing in the West End, on Broadway and internationally. He has been the Associate Director of The Young Vic and Shakespeare’s Globe. Matthew has been nominated for three Olivier Awards and his Broadway production of Hangmen was nominated for five Tony’s.
Joining Martin and Matthew on the creative team are: Production Designer Anna Fleischle, Lighting Designer Neil Austin, Sound Designer Ian Dickinson for Autograph, Video Designer Dick Straker, Casting Director Amy Ball CDG, Fight Director RC Annie, Movement Director Chi-San Howard, Associate Director Isabel Marr, Associate Designer Liam Bunster.
The Pillowman is produced by Empire Street Productions, the same company that brought the hugely successful Prima Facie starring Jodie Comer to the West End last year, and which went on to break audience records when it was subsequently released in cinemas by NT Live. The production is currently running to great acclaim on Broadway. As with Prima Facie, accessibility to The Pillowman is fundamental to the producer, and there will be a Pay What You Can scheme, with 20 tickets per performance for the week, released the Wednesday beforehand.
Pen International, which has been promoting literature and defending freedom of expression worldwide since 1921 recently announced a unique partnership with this new production of Martin McDonagh’s The Pillowman. The partnership includes a series of events and initiatives to shine a light on the themes that McDonagh’s acclaimed play examines. Further details of the events and initiatives will be released in due course.
