Directing the Pillowman

I have wanted to direct The Pillowman since I first read it a decade ago. I felt then and still do that McDonagh is rattling at the cage of theatre asking how far can you go?

The weave and weft of the stories, the characters, and the plot are mindbending. The play is utterly intriguing in its absolute refusal to be boxed or labelled or pinned down - it is irrelevant and provocative and entirely open for interpretation in a way that a lot of contemporary writing isn't. The Pillowman is the antithesis of didactic moralising, and revels in the pure art of storytelling.

The soul of the play is domestic and profoundly beautiful in its evacuation of two utterly damaged siblings vagiating a world that they can't understand and in which their trauma cannot ever be understood. The 'totalitarian state' in which the play is set can be read as both literal and figurative - fascism is a regime but it is also a state of mind.

Unforunately those who exist in the spaces between the black and white are, and have always been, the first in the firing line Time in Memoriam.

It is a joy to be released into the art of storytelling which this play invites you into and if there is a takeaway - it's ok to be a little bit peculiar and that theatre can take you on a journey that is utterly unique.

In the spirit of the thing I would like to thank all who have made this theatrical adventure possible. My colleagues and baord at Prime Cut, Jimmy Fay and the wonderful staff at the Lyric and our long standing funders ACNI, the Belfast City Council and Jerwood Arts.

Last but not least big thanks to Martin McDonagh for the joy and satisfaction inherent in working on his plays.

Emma Jordan, Director