LESSON SIX. 24|10|12. - Starting 'The Pillowman'

We have now started working on our first production, ‘The Pillowman’ by Martin McDonagh. As soon as we arrived in the room we were sat down and he handed out the roles. As this performances only has 4 main characters and our group is made of 7 people we decided to have to casts. With the main character to be played by the same person, and the smaller parts will be played by the people who are either not on stage or from the other cast. The cast is as followed: 

Character:        Cast One:       Cast Two:
Katurian           Kelly                Kelly
Tupolski           Poppy              Ciara
Ariel                 Emily                Jake
Michal              Matt                 Chris

We were all happy with the parts we were given and think sir has made the right choices. We then set to work with the script. We first read through the script section we were going to do that lesson as our characters, doing half with cast one, the second with cast two. We then started to block out our performance we worked on the first little section in half an hour, and then we had half an hour to rehearse this on our own and even go a little further on. As Kelly cannot rehearse with both casts at the same time, and Michal is not yet on stage, Matt and Chris took it in turns to help which ever cast that was without a Katurian. We went over parts we thought were good. We did not get any pictures of the first progression. So I took some pictures of the script pages with the stage directions on so I can talk about them instead. 

At the start Ariel (Emily/Jake) walks from centre stage to DSR and pulls down a switch that will make the music stop. They then reach into the crisp packet and chew on the crisp. Katurian makes a flinch towards that direction as she cannot see because she has the hood over her head. Ariel then walks to UPL and takes another bite, when Katurian flicks her head in the direction this time, Ariel almost realises they’re not meant to be there and attempts to walk silently to the chair and sit down on it. then takes another bite of a crisp. This creates comedy straight away. Because this play is black comedy, we want to tell the audience almost straight away that it’s okay for them to laugh so to do this we have to create more humour than uneasiness, for now anyway. 

This is where it starts to become a little more dark because it’s the first time we hear about what’s in Katurian’s stories. When Ariel moves the chair round to the other side of Katurian he is agitated and disgusted. Because we know what the story was and how it relates to the child murders so we try and show that. This is where Ariel really starts to build up anger and Tupolski almost brushes this off because he is used to Ariel’s behaviour. 

For a task, we had to talk to our ‘other’ about our character and go through tone’s we should use. I also wanted to do a little bit more research on the main characters so I had a bit more background. 

Katurian: A guy who writes incredibly gruesome stories involving children, who are often abused. His cruel imagination has evolved from his parents abusing his brother in the room next door to his bedroom to make him a better writer. When he found out about this, he killed both his parents and looked after his brain damaged brother. He is then arrested and unaware of what they’re accusing him of, and is almost innocent. 

Tupolski: The lead detective and the ‘good cop’ in the interrogation, or… so we think. Intelligent, quirky, sardonic, funny despite the police brutality. Cold and uncaring, he sees himself as detached from the people he aims to save, shocking his younger partner Ariel. We may be changing this to a female character but the qualities will stay the same.

Ariel: A brutal and vicious detective who is has a strong hatred to any commits a crime against children because of the abuse he received as a child. The bad cop, or… so we think. More open with anger, fierce and eager to torture anyone on the wrong side of the law. 

Michal: Katurians brain damaged brother who was tortured by his parents to make Katurian a better writer. He is also taken to jail for questioning with his brother because they share there living space together. Michal is simple with a childlike soul and wouldn’t hurt a fly… maybe.