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. You can listen to our review of that show here:
The Play Review – The Pillowman.
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
113 – Arcadia by Tom Stoppard
Published 24th August
Tom Stoppard’s 1993 play, Arcadia is viewed by many as his finest play, renowned for the breadth of its intellectual interrogations and its formal invention. The play is a structural masterpiece of ideas, as well as a teasing detective story, joyous comedy, and emotionally rich exploration of love and loss.
As we record this episode a wonderful new production of Arcadia is playing at the Duke of York’s theatre in London’s West End, following its acclaimed run at the Old Vic theatre earlier this year. I am delighted to share the challenge and the pleasure of exploring Stoppard’s dazzling drama with the director of the new production, Carrie Cracknell.
112 – Glengarry Glen Ross by David Mamet
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David Mamet’s modern American classic, Glengarry Glen Ross, is a blistering commentary on the cut-throat reality of the American dream, and its poisonous impact on those who have bought into the myth and machismo of that dream. The play had its world premiere in the small Cottesloe theatre at the National Theatre in London in September 1983, and was first performed in New York the following year, winning the Pulitzer Prize for Drama. Mamet also wrote the extended screenplay for the star-studded 1992 film version.
As we recorded this episode a new production of the play was playing at the Old Vic theatre in London, with an all-female cast. This is a particularly provocative idea, because one of the primary themes of this play is masculine identity, and the salesmen in this Chicago office do not hold back in their display of machismo.
To explore Mamet’s unflinching slice of 1980s dog-eat-dog capitalism, I am joined by arts journalist Mark Lawson.
111 – The Resistible Rise of Arturo Ui by Bertolt Brecht
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Bertolt Brecht’s ‘gangster spectacle’, The Resistible Rise of Arturo Ui, is both an exuberant and funny piece of theatre, and a chillingly topical political satire. Set in the 1930s Chicago of Al Capone, Brecht presents a parody of the rise of Hitler through the character of the gangster Arturo Ui. The play is a universal cry for vigilance against the rise of unscrupulous, populist leaders who threaten democratic societies and global peace.
As we recorded this episode a new production of the play by the Royal Shakespeare Company was playing in Stratford-upon-Avon, starring Mark Gatiss as the title character.
I am delighted to be joined by both the show’s translator, playwright Stephen Sharkey, and by Brecht scholar, Professor Tom Kuhn, to guide us through Brecht’s political parody.
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