Art Imitates Life, Imitating Art

Friday 7 September, 2007

Art Imitates Life, Imitating Art

Auckland Theatre Company's production of The Pillowman is continuing to stir controversy.

In a bizarre case of art imitating life imitating art, The Pillowman - where writer Katurian Katurian (Craig Parker) is interrogated about the gruesome content of his short stories and their similarities to a number of bizarre incidents occurring in his town - mirrors a case currently making headlines around the world.

On Friday 7 September 2007 the NZ Herald reported that Polish author, travel writer and intellectual, Krystian Bala, has been jailed for 25 years for committing the crime he had vividly portrayed in his best-selling novel Amok.

Auckland Theatre Company Artistic Director, Colin McColl, said the The Pillowman is a provocative work that pushes audiences to think about artistic freedom, its rights and responsibilities.

"The Pillowman has polarized audiences already due to its references to child murder, and the Bala case is another grizzly coincidence of life imitating art", says McColl. "We have received huge amounts of feedback and some of our audience members have found the content reprehensible whilst others have absolutely loved its confrontational and shocking subject matter."

McColl says the Company welcomes all of this feedback and accepts that the ideas explored in this cutting-edge contemporary work may not be to everyone's taste.

"The Pillowman really is a play that people need to see to believe and make up their own minds about", he says.

The Pillowman runs at the Maidment Theatre until September 15. Bookings can be made through the Maidment Theatre Box Office on 308 2383 or online at www.atc.co.nz .

ENDS

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