ATC Founder Returns To Direct The Pillowman

AUCKLAND THEATRE COMPANY
MEDIA RELEASE

18 July 2007

The Pillowman
by Martin McDonagh

"Every now and then you encounter something you know you will never forget as long as you shall live." - The Daily Mirror

"A spellbinding stunner of a play, appallingly funny and endlessly quotable." - The New York Times

"The darkest moments are as unsentimental as the best fairy tale, making jokes about the unthinkable." - The Sunday Times

ATC Founder Simon Prast Returns To Direct The Pillowman

Hot from sell-out Broadway and London seasons, Auckland Theatre Company presents the New Zealand premiere of Martin McDonagh's viciously funny new play, The Pillowman. Directed by Auckland Theatre Company's founding Director Simon Prast and featuring Oliver Driver, Jonathan Hardy, Michael Hurst, Craig Parker and Gareth Reeves, The Pillowman plays at the Maidment Theatre from August 23rd - September 15th.

In an unspecified totalitarian state, unpublished writer Katurian Katurian (Craig Parker) is interrogated about his nightmarish short stories and their similarities to a number of gruesome murders occurring in his town. When Katurian's mentally impaired brother Michal (Gareth Reeves) is also brought in for questioning, two sardonic secret policemen resort to increasingly absurd and hilariously unconventional methods of interrogation to uncover the truth.

Stylistically akin to American Psycho, with the suspenseful twists and turns of The Silence of the Lambs, The Pillowman represents the most exhilarating writing that contemporary theatre has to offer.
Auckland Theatre Company Artistic Director, Colin McColl, says: "Underneath the grisly acts of horror The Pillowman is about the power of storytelling and the thrilling narrative potential of theatre itself. The play also explores artistic censorship and how the pursuit of justice can result in actions that are as horrific as the crime", says McColl.
Simon Prast was Auckland Theatre Company's founding director from March 1992 - February 2003. During his tenure, Simon produced and / or directed over sixty mainbill productions including The Graduate, The Rocky Horror Show, Hair, Death of a Salesman, A Streetcar Named Desire, and 12 Angry Men, which Subscribers voted 'ATC Production of the Decade'.
He directed the inaugural Auckland Festival, AK03, later voted 'Event of the Year' in the 2003 Metro Readers Poll. The same poll voted Simon 'Auckland Man of the Year', an acclaim he shared with then-Mayor John Banks. After a 4 ½ year break, Prast is happy to be back in the director's chair for this production.

"To work with a first-rate cast and crew on a masterful new script is a great privilege. McDonagh lures you to places you have never been, so as to experience events you will never forget. And I mean, NEVER!!! Unmissable", says Prast.

Senior New Zealand actor, director and writer, Jonathan Hardy, returns to play police interrogator, Tupolski. Hardy has performed for major British companies and all the State theatre companies in Australia. He is much awarded especially for his classical work. Hardy joins Auckland Theatre Company veterans Michael Hurst (dir. Twelfth Night), Oliver Driver (Twelfth Night, Caligula), Craig Parker (Rosencrantz & Guildenstern Are Dead) and Gareth Reeves (The Crucible, Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?) on the Maidment Theatre stage for this production. Newcomers Sarah Thomson (Ensemble Project) and Brooke Williams (The Crucible) round-out this talented cast.

Martin McDonagh's The Pillowman played to critical acclaim in London (Olivier Award Winner) and New York (Tony nominee). McDonagh's other plays include The Beauty Queen of Leenane, The Cripple of Inishmaan and Tony nominees The Lonesome West and The Lieutenant of Inishmore. His short film Six Shooter won a 2006 Academy Award.

The production will be designed by John Verryt, with lighting by Bryan Caldwell, costumes by Elizabeth Whiting and sound by Eden Mulholland.

Viciously funny, horrifyingly theatrical and packed with adrenaline pumping narrative, The Pillowman is a Brother's Grimm tale for the twenty-first century.

Tickets to Auckland Theatre Company's production of Martin McDonagh's The Pillowman are available through the Maidment Theatre Box Office 09 3082383 or online www.atc.co.nz

The Pillowman
by Martin McDonagh

Starring:
Oliver Driver, Jonathan Hardy, Michael Hurst, Craig Parker, Gareth Reeves, Sarah Thomson and Brooke Williams

Director: Simon Prast
Designers: John Verryt, Bryan Caldwell, Elizabeth Whiting, Eden Mulholland

Maidment Theatre
August 23 - September 15

Performances Times:
Tuesday - Wednesday 6.30pm
Thursday - Saturday 8.00pm
Sundays 4.00pm
Preview Performance Thursday 23rd & Friday 24th August at 8pm
Matinee Saturday 8th September at 2pm
Tickets: $30 - $54 (booking fees apply)

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