The Pillowman - Acting Edition
by Martin McDonagh
List Price:
Our Price: $7.41
You Save: $0.59 (7%)
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Buy Used: from $4.80 (click here)
Category: Book
See more book details and other editions
Book Summary Information
Author: Martin McDonaghEdition: Paperback
Audio: English (Unknown); English (Original Language); English (Published)
Published: 2006-01-01
ISBN: 0822221004
Number of pages: 72
Publisher: Dramatists Play Service, Inc.
Book Reviews of The Pillowman - Acting Edition
Book Review: One of the BEST things I have ever read. Period.
Summary: 5 Stars
I will never forget the day that I was fortunate enough to discover Mr. McDonagh's work of genius, "The Pillowman." I was skulking around a bookstore, looking for something to read in order to kill the time, and I happened to end up in the drama section. I browsed the titles and once I came across this one, I was immediately intrigued. I read the synopsis and I had no choice; I had to buy it. As I sat in my car reading, I was literally pulled into the dark, grim, fantastic, entertaining, and twisted work that I held in my hands. I read it straight through and could not put it down. When I finished, I was, quite simply, breathless.
Summing up such a many-layered work is a sort of injustice, but I shall try, anyway: Katurian's life consists of working at a slaughterhouse, minding his mentally impaired brother, and writing lots of stories...hundreds of them, in fact. It is because of these stories that two police officers become very interested in Mr. Katurian. Unfortunately for him, several children have been murdered in ways that are gruesomely similar to the ones that occur in some of Katurian's fiction. And it is Katurian's wonderfully sadistic stories that become the focal point of the investigation (and the play!), as the officers try to understand the motives for the killings and figure out where the final victim might be. As readers, we are allowed into Katurian's creative world, which includes a few of his short fiction pieces and the black-secret childhood nightmare that inspired what is possibly the greatest short story he has ever written, the titular "Pillowman."
Throughout the narrative (and the performace, too, I am sure), we have the privilege of delving into the full text of some of his stories (among them, the wonderfully twisted and fairy tale-esque "The Tale of the Town on the River") and are given disturbing and intriguing summaries of others ("The Three Gibbet Crossroads," for example). Several of the stories are even written to be acted out as scenes, which are shocking and highly fascinating.
And if all this weren't enough to captivate a reading-audience, there are still questions, both moral and political, that "The Pillowman" asks. Are writers responsible for the content of their work and what that work might inspire others to do? Is it all right for police to resort to brutality to get the vital information they need? Is life truly horrible? Are there times when murder can be viewed as an act of mercy? These are but a few of a smorgasborg of questions that a reader or essayist is confronted with in the play.
As a whole, McDonagh's work is interesting, well-paced, and filled with twists and unpredictable turns that keep it incredibly exciting. The ending, for me, was like a punch to the stomach that I truly didn't see coming. I have recommended it to both family and friends and am always delighted by the different things they notice and the different interpretations they have ("Pillowman" lends itself to many).
I have not read anything THIS GOOD in years. If I could have given it ten stars, I would have gladly done so.
- The Stalwart Pageboy
Summary of The Pillowman - Acting Edition
While still in his twenties, the Anglo-Irish playwright Martin McDonagh has filled houses in New York and London, been showered with the theatre world's most prestigious accolades, and electrified audiences with his cunningly crafted and outrageous tragicomedies. With echoes of Stoppard and Kafka, his latest drama, The Pillowman, is the viciously funny and seriously disturbing tale of a writer in an unnamed totalitarian state who is interrogated about the gruesome content of his short stories and their similarities to a number of child-murders occurring in his town.
United States Books
Book Subjects
- Arts & Photography
- Biographies & Memoirs
- Business & Investing
- Children's Books
- Comics & Graphic Novels
- Computers & Internet
- Cooking, Food & Wine
- Entertainment
- Gay & Lesbian
- Health, Mind & Body
- History
- Home & Garden
- Horror
- Law
- Literature & Fiction
- Mystery & Thrillers
- Nonfiction
- Outdoors & Nature
- Parenting & Families
- Professional & Technical
- Reference
- Religion & Spirituality
- Romance
- Science
- Science Fiction & Fantasy
- Sports
- Teens
- Travel
Most talked about in United States Books
Their Place on the Stage: Black Women Playwrights in Americaby Eliz Brown Guillory
Praeger; Published: 1990-03-20; Paperback; Book
Best price: $23.95
PLAYS FOR AN IMAGINARY THEATERby Judson L. Jerome
University of Illinois Press; Published: 1970-05-01; Hardcover; Book
Price in other shops:
Differences in the Darkby Michael T. Gilmore
Columbia University Press; Published: 1998-07-15; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $2.49
Price in other shops:
Acting Gayby John M. Clum
Columbia University Press; Published: 1992-04-15; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $60.66
Price in other shops:
Absurd, Black and Comic Sketches (Drama)by Peter Joucla
Nelson Thornes Ltd; Published: 1991-03; Paperback; Book
The Sorrows of Frederick and Holy Ghosts (An Original harvest book ; HB 355)by Romulus Linney
Harcourt; Published: 1977-04; Paperback; Book
Best price: $50.31
The Glass Menagerie (Modern Classics (Penguin))by Tennessee Williams
Penguin Books; Published: 2009-07; Paperback; Book
Best price: $5.56
Price in other shops:
An Enemy of the People (Penguin Plays)by Henrik Ibsen
Penguin (Non-Classics); Published: 1977-11-17; Paperback; Book
Best price: $4.54
Price in other shops:
Five O'Clock Angelby Tennessee Williams
Penguin (Non-Classics); Published: 1991-08-01; Mass Market Paperback; Book
Best price: $29.94
Shakespeareby Michael Wood
Basic Books; Published: 2004-10-12; Paperback; Book
Best price: $6.99
Price in other shops:
Similar Books and other products
Dog Sees God: Confessions of a Teenage Blockhead - Acting Editionby Bert V. Royal
Dramatists Play Service, Inc.; Published: 2006-01-01; Paperback; Book
Best price: $7.31
Price in other shops:
Sam Shepard : Seven Plays (Buried Child, Curse of the Starving Class, The Tooth of Crime, La Turista, Tongues, Savage Love, True West)by Sam Shepard
Dial Press Trade Paperback; Published: 1984-05-01; Paperback; Book
Best price: $7.95
Price in other shops:
The Shape Of Thingsby Neil Labute
Broadway Play Pub; Published: 2003-12-31; Paperback; Book
Best price: $8.85
Price in other shops:
A Behanding in Spokane - Acting Editionby Martin McDonagh
Dramatists Play Service, Inc.; Published: 2011-06-09; Paperback; Book
Best price: $8.00
Wit - Acting Editionby Margaret Edson
Dramatists Play Service, Inc.; Published: 1999-05-01; Paperback; Book
Best price: $7.15
Price in other shops:
August: Osage County - Acting Editionby Tracy Letts
Dramatists Play Service, Inc.; Published: 2009-11-10; Paperback; Book
Best price: $8.00
Arcadia: A Playby Tom Stoppard
Faber & Faber; Published: 1994-09-24; Paperback; Book
Best price: $6.85
Price in other shops:
The Lieutenant of Inishmore - Acting Editionby Martin McDonagh
Dramatists Play Service, Inc.; Published: 2003-01-01; Paperback; Book
Best price: $6.27
Price in other shops:
The Goat, or Who is Sylvia?by Edward Albee
Overlook TP; Published: 2004-12-28; Paperback; Book
Best price: $8.57
Price in other shops:
God of Carnage - Acting Editionby translated by Christopher Hampton Yasmina Reza
Dramatists Play Service, Inc.; Published: 2009-06-04; Paperback; Book
Best price: $7.90
Price in other shops: