No need to hop on the Chinatown bus to get the full Broadway experience. Tonight, look no further than the Balch Arena Theater, where Pen, Paint, & Pretzels produces "The Pillowman," a funny but disturbing play currently winning rave reviews on Broadway.
"The Pillowman" tells a gruesome but comic tale. A short story writer, Katurian K. Katurian (sophomore Dave Adler) lives under a fictitious totalitarian regime, and suddenly finds himself hauled in for interrogation by two police officers, Ariel and Tupolski (freshman Will Shaw and senior Armen Nercessian). Katurian discovers that the officers suspect him of involvement in a series of brutal child murders that have occurred in his town, and which eerily resemble the content of some of his stories.
Child-murders and torture may not sound like material for a comedy, but Martin McDonagh's script is surprisingly humorous and self-mocking. As the scenes grow darker and more disturbing, McDonagh surprises the audience with a wry joke or witty reference. For example, Ariel and Tupolski perform a good cop/bad cop routine that is hilarious, even as they prepare to torture the unfortunate Katurian.
Director senior Dan Balkin saw a performance of "Pillowman" during a semester abroad in Longon and was attracted to the writing from the first. "It's the best script I've read in a long time," he said.
"It has extremely complex, fully developed characters, it's viciously funny, and it combines a dark, almost urban realism with fairy tale-like imagination," Balkin said. The imaginative element comes into play when actors mime out Katurian's stories as he tells them to the audience.
The idea of good storytelling is a strong element within the play. "The first duty of the storyteller is to tell a story," says Katurian to his interrogators. As Katurian's stories are read by Tupolski and told by Katurian himself, the audience is left to wonder where to draw the line between truth and fiction.
Who committed the murders? Did they even occur? Are Katurian's stories based in fact? And what does Michael, Katurian's mentally damaged brother (sophomore David Jenkins) have to do with all this?
It is the thrill of unanswered questions in the story that makes the play so captivating. "'The Pillowman' is much less about brutality than it is about telling the audience a story with twists and turns," Nercessian said. "You think you know where it's going, and then the bottom just drops out."
Balkin and the designers of the show are using the Balch Arena to enhance the disturbing tone. Since the audience sits around the actors in a small space, there is an almost claustrophobic feel that is reminiscent of ghost stories told around a secluded campfire in the wilderness. Every noise in the darkness makes the listeners huddle closer together as they are enthralled by the terrifying tale.
Additionally, sound designer Drew Shelton has made sure that there are plenty of disturbing noises. Shelton - a graduate student in civil and environmental engineering - wanted to go beyond the normal sound effects and music used in most plays.
"We're doing something with sound that has pretty much never been done at Tufts before," he said.
The result was Shelton's creation of "soundscapes" that evoke the emotional states of the characters. "These characters had horrible things happen to them in their childhoods, things that won't leave them alone," he said.
In spite of its dark nature, Balkin said he believes that his cast and crew have created a spectacle that anyone will enjoy seeing.
"There are no judgments or political motivations in this play," Balkin said. "It just wants to tell you a story that will shock you enough to keep you on the edge of the seat for the duration of the show."
