With echoes of both Franz Kafka and the fairy tales of the Brothers Grimm, THE PILLOWMAN centers its story on a writer in an unnamed totalitarian state who is being questioned by two remorselass interrogators about the gruesome content of his short stories and their similarity to a series of child murders. While the questioning continues, he keeps hearing the screams of his mentally challenged brother who is presumably being tortured in a nearby room. It is a play full of implied and actual violence, but also full of a dark laughter where nothing is as straightforward as it first seems.

The playwright, Martin McDonagh, who is the first playwright since Shakespeare to have four plays running simultaneously in London's West End, is examining fascinating questions in THE PILLOWMAN. Does disturbing art inspire disturbing actions in others? In oneself? Or do violent actions spawn violent art? And perhaps most intiguing of all, what is the value of art in a violent society?

THE PILLOWMAN, which won the prestigious Olivier award for best new play in London and then repeated with the New York Critics Circle award for best play here is a cunning blend of black comedy and mystery which offers its audiences a potent mixture of shivers, laughs and gasps.