Grim endings

The New Phoenix Theatre's production of Martin McDonagh's award-winning drama, "The Pillowman," continues through Dec. 8.

"The Pillowman" finds the police of an unnamed totalitarian state investigating the writer Katurian because of an apparent connection between the endings of his grim, fairy-tale-like stories and a series of child murders in the vicinity. If Katurian is not himself the sole, likely suspect, then might he share responsibility with his brother, the mentally disabled Michal, under investigation in a cell next door?

As the investigation continues, Katurian refers to his own tales as "something-esque," thus nodding from the inside of McDonagh's play at the Kafkaesque sequence of self-incrimination and arbitrary legal codes in which his tormentors entrap him, while his own tales evoke the bloodthirsty folk imagery of the Brothers Grimm. But as the play unfolds, Katurian and his brother owe a strange debt to tales and storytelling, while the police investigators, who resort to brutality and torture with sadistic glee, likewise, come to reveal that the boundaries between their own lives and stories is dangerously thin.

"The Pillowman," which premiered at London's Royal National Theatre in 2003 and in New York City at The Booth Theatre in 2005, won a host of awards. In London, the play won the 2004 Olivier Award and an Evening Standard nomination for Best New Play. Following its Broadway transfer, it won the Drama Critics Circle Award for Best Play (Foreign), while the cast and production won a clutch of Tonys, Drama Desk and Outer Critics Circle awards for its young playwright.

"The Pillowman," directed by Robert Waterhouse, features Peter Jaskowiak as Katurian and Richard Lambert as Michal, along with Jeff Coyle, Gary Marz, Kevin Cain and Sacha and Tanya Shaffer. Performances are at 8 p.m. Thursday through Saturday at the New Phoenix Theatre on the Park, 95 Johnson Parkway, Buffalo. There is no performance Thanksgiving Day, Thursday, Nov. 22. Tickets are $20 general, $15 students and seniors, and are available by calling 853-1334 or online at www.ne wphoenixtheatre.org.