The Pillowman: Sin as a civilization heirloom A very dark comedy “The Pillowman” by an Irish playwright Martin McDonagh, directed by Žanko Tomić, in the production of the “Yorick” troupe from Novi Sad, had its premiere on Monday at the Chamber Scene of the Serbian National Theatre. It is interesting that the actors and the director encountered the same playwright for the second time in their careers, the previous occasion was, not so long ago, during the most successful and mature play of this ambitious independent troupe at the time, “The Lieutenant Of Inishmore”. At the same time, a good recommendation brought to an anticipated close of events, a high quality play, which showed that with enthusiasm and perseverance, neither of which ever the “Yorick” team lacked, what comes, as a logical train of circumstances, is the deserved success, the mature repertoire politics and a performance that must satisfy even the strictest criteria of the Novi Sad theatre scene.The imaginary world of the bizarre and of death arises from the scene box skillfully manufactured as an investigator’s room, in which a typically baffled duo of a good cop-bad cop interrogates a young, anonymous, but skillful and imaginative writer, as a prime suspect in a series of murders which took place in the identical manner as it was described in his stories.
Envisioned as a thriller, the literary text, otherwise very popular and often performed in this area, develops into an all-encompassing study of a civilization heirloom of a modern man, in which the reasons for seemingly illogical tragedies and moral falls hide deep within the past, in the sin of our forefathers, which is not, and will never be compensated with the positive outcome.The story, alongside the interestingly used video-scene, brings unexpected problems and turns in which the other actors are, over time, declared as the participants of the same children’s game of the unsuccessful growing-up and of out-growing the difficult frustrations taken on somewhere along the way, without the possibility of choice, and, automatically, without the real guilt. A series of existential questions, partly and unconsciously open, is left, however, without a real answer, just like it is in life, which usually is exactly like that, full of inconsistencies, rarely fulfilled and most often left only partly explained.
The support to the Youth Theatre strikeAt the end of the play in the Serbian National Theatre, the “Yorick” group gave their support to the actors from the Youth Theatre, who have been on strike for over three months now, demanding that the Director of the Theatre Tomislav Knežević is replaced. The second performance of “The Pillowman” will be on January 31st, also at the Chamber Scene of the Serbian National Theatre.Good cast, which, besides the standard part of the team, also includes a respectable Belgrade guest Nenad Gvozdenović, skillfully lives out the bizarre series of dark theatrical stories with Marko Marković as the main protagonist, who also deserves special compliments for his oratory skills, a regular, dramatically accented, inspired and justified speech in the recorded off-sequences.
His scenes of dialogue with constantly inspired, and also experienced and recognizable in similar roles of a “rain man”, Milovan Filipović, once again show all the splendor of minimalism, in which the partners necessarily face each other, which together with the well-read directing handwriting with the regular exchange of energies, hardly remain unanswered from the other side of the scene border. The applause, this time, also must go to Milorad Kapor, whose character of the not-so-bright cop brought the key change in the perception of the balance of good and evil, as the only hint of the possible optimism and a glimmer of hope for the world we live in.Zlatomir Gajić, DNEVNIK