THE PILLOWMAN to Open at The Ensemble Company
Martin McDonagh's twisted tale of storytelling and censorship arrives at the intimate theater company.
The Ensemble Company, the award-winning repertory theatre company in residence at Imagine Performing Arts Center, will continue its 2026 season with Martin McDonagh's acclaimed dark comedy, The Pillowman.
With echoes of Stoppard, Kafka and The Brothers Grimm, The Pillowman centers on a writer in an unnamed totalitarian state who is being interrogated about the gruesome content of his short stories and their similarities to a series of child murders. The result is an urgent work of theatrical bravura and an unflinching examination of the very nature and purpose of art.
The Pillowman stemmed in part from Martin McDonagh's experience composing fairy tales, with names such as 'The Chair and the Wolfboy', 'The Short Fellow and the Strange Frog', and 'The Violin and the Drunken Angel', early in his writing career. Attempting to rewrite fairy tales he remembered from childhood, he realized that 'there's something dark about them that doesn't quite come through.' The Pillowman premiered at London's Royal National Theatre in November 2003, in a John Crowley-directed production starring David Tennant as Katurian, Jim Broadbent as Tupolski, Nigel Lindsay as Ariel, and Adam Godley as Michal. Mr. Crowley again staged the play for Broadway in 2005 starring Billy Crudup (Katurian), Jeff Goldblum (Tupolski), Michael Stuhlbarg (Michal), and Željko Ivanek (Ariel). The Broadway production was nominated for six Tony Awards, winning two (for Scenic Design and Lighting), and four Drama Desk Awards, winning two (for Stuhlbarg's featured performance and Sound Design). The play returned to London's West End in 2023 in a new production directed by Matthew Dunster.
The Ensemble Company's production of The Pillowman will be directed by associate artistic director Gabriel Garcia (The Effect, Meteor Shower, Bernarda Alba, Red) and stars Jullien Aponte in his Ensemble Company debut as Katurian, with Ensemble Company veterans Brenna Arden (Meteor Shower, Suddenly Last Summer, In the Next Room or The Vibrator Play) as Tupolski (replacing the previously announced Matthew MacDermid), Daniel Luis Molina (Hir, Stupid f-ing Bird, The Normal Heart) as Michal, and Jeremy Wood (Meteor Shower, Frozen) as Ariel.
The Pillowman will run October 30 - November 8, 2026 in the Barbara Lynn Johnson Theatre at Imagine Performing Arts Center, located at 1220 Oviedo Mall Blvd, Oviedo, Florida, 32765. Performances are Friday and Saturday evenings at 8:00pm, Sunday afternoons at 2:00pm, and a special Monday night performance on 11/02 at 8:00pm.
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