Lily Allen and Steve Pemberton
The Pillowman
Duke of York’s Theatre, London, August 2023
066 – The Pillowman by Martin McDonagh
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Martin McDonagh’s 2004 play The Pillowman is an uneasy mix of gruesome fairy tales, child abuse and murder, overlaid with McDonagh’s signature black humour. It is true to say that McDonagh’s work provokes contrasting responses. His plays have certainly been popular with audiences and producers, but they have also attracted hostile criticism from some reviewers and academics. Their blend of graphic violence with ironic comedy can be disturbing, which of course may be part of the author’s point.
I’m glad to have the opportunity to explore the shifting terrain of this unsettling play with an expert, Professor Eamonn Jordan. Eammon is Professor of Drama Studies at the School of English, Drama and Film at University College Dublin, and is the author of two books on the films and theatre of Martin McDonagh.
As we record this episode a new production of The Pillowman is playing at the Duke of York’s Theatre in London’s West End.
Eamonn Jordan
Eamonn Jordan is Professor in Drama Studies at the School of English, Drama and Film, at University College Dublin. Eamonn has written two books on the work of Martin McDonagh: From Leenane to LA: The Theatre and Cinema of Martin McDonagh, and, Justice and the Plays and Films of Martin McDonagh, as well as edited essay collections on contemporary Irish theatre.
Recommended Play
Eamonn recommended The Weir by Conor McPherson,
By the Bog of Cats by Marina Carr, and
Pygmalion by George Bernard Shaw.
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Douglas
067 – Red Pitch by Tyrell Williams
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Tyrell William’s award-winning, debut play Red Pitch is set on an inner-city football pitch in South London. It is a coming-of-age story, with teenage boys fighting to believe in their dreams, and to find a way up, and perhaps out, of their changing community. The play premiered at the Bush Theatre in London in February 2002, winning several awards, and is currently enjoying a sell-out revival at the Bush.
Tyrell Williams, and the show’s director, Daniel Bailey, join me to explore this joyful and poignant new play.
Photo by Helen Murray.
065 – Accidental Death of an Anarchist, by Dario Fo and Franca Rame
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Accidental Death of an Anarchist by Dario Fo and Franca Rame is both an hilarious farce and a biting satire. Written in 1970 as an “act of intervention” in response to the unexplained death of a prisoner in police custody in Milan, it became a huge global hit.
An acclaimed new adaptation that updates the setting and scandal to modern-day Britain is currently playing at the Theatre Royal Haymarket, and I’m delighted to be joined by its writer, Tom Basden, and the director, Daniel Raggett, to talk about their adaptation and the enduring relevance of Fo’s original.
064 – A Midsummer Night’s Dream, by William Shakespeare
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A Midsummer Night’s Dream has all the ingredients of classic romantic comedy: a magical setting, a merry-go-round of earnest young lovers, a fairy King and Queen, and a troupe of hapless comic actors, all given a supernatural spin in the course of a single moonlit night. But is the dream-like world of the wood outside Athens as benign a place as we imagine?
As we record this episode a new production of the play is part of the Summer season at Shakespeare’s Globe Theatre in London, with Michelle Terry giving an outstanding performance as the sardonic sprite Puck.
My guest to help explore Shakespeare’s wondrous ‘visions’ is Emma Smith, Professor of Shakespeare Studies at Hertford College, Oxford.
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