Newnan Theatre Company Presents THE PILLOWMAN

Newnan Theatre Company is proud to announce the opening of Martin McDonagh's The Pillowman. McDonagh's work received the 2004-2005 New York Drama Critic's Circle award for Best New Foreign Play as well as two TONY awards. It was also nominated for the 2004 Evening Standard Award for Best New Play.

The show revolves around Katurian, an author of short stories. Katurian's stories often focus on violence against children. He is arrested when a string of child murders begins, mirroring the violent acts in his stories. Two detectives, Ariel and Tupolski, bring him to an interrogation room where the questioning begins. When Katurian is told that his brother Michal has confessed to the crimes and implicated Katurian in the confession, the author resigns himself to being sentenced to death but fights to keep his stories from being censored forever by the police state he lives in. The play incudes both narrations and reenactments of some of his stories, most notably the autobiographical tale, "The Writer and the Writer's Brother," which explains how Katurian's dark imagination developed - he spent many nights as a child hearing the sounds of his brother, Michal, being horribly abused by their parents.

Director Bert Lyons was intrigued by the dark story of The Pillowman. "As McDonagh himself has said many times, most fairy tales were much darker than the child-friendly ones we know today. Even stories like 'Cinderella' and 'Sleeping Beauty' had horrific details in the original Grimm Brothers versions. Over time though, the stories were tamed down for children, to the point of becoming classic children's movies by Walt Disney. Nonetheless, the dark sides of those stories linger."

Playing the tortured author Katurian is Arden Avery. Nikolas Carleo plays his brother, "Michal." Robert Stowe and P. David Miller portray the two detectives investigating the horrible crimes. "This is the first time I have played a character in a show this dark. Usually, I am all about the comedy. But this story, taking place in a fictional world where the freedoms we take for granted are gone, where the state controls the press, the police, and the citizens, was a frightening idea," says Stowe. "It's a world that could be, if left unchecked."

Martin McDonagh's The Pillowman opens on November 10th and runs through November 20th. Showtimes are 8 pm for the Thursday - Saturday shows, and 7 pm for the Sunday presentations. The show is presented in Newnan Theatre Company's Black Box venue. It should be noted that this show has mature content and should not be thought of as a 'family-friendly" presentation.

Tickets are available on the Newnan Theatre Company's website, www.newnantheatre.org , or by calling the NTC Box Office at 770-683-6282. Please contact Tony Daniel, Newnan Theatre Company's artistic director at artistic-director@newnantheatre.org or by calling 770-683-6282 if you have any questions about the show.