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Irish Times
05-07-2025
- Entertainment
- Irish Times
The Pillowman, at the Gate Theatre: ‘Another level of dark, even for Martin McDonagh'
Martin McDonagh 's The Pillowman, a chilling fable of two brothers embroiled in a criminal investigation, has more relevance today than ever, according to Fra Fee . The actor plays Katurian, the accused writer at the heart of this darkly comic tale of censorship and artistic licence, which is about to open at the Gate Theatre in Dublin. The play was first performed in 2003, at the National Theatre in London, where David Tennant took on the role of Katurian, who is being interrogated in a totalitarian state about a series of child murders that bear an eerie resemblance to the killings in his stories. 'Of course censorship has always been a thing, but I find it extraordinary that this predates cancel culture, as it were, which is just so, so prevalent, and people are afraid to say anything, and art is very much edited on a big level,' Fee says. READ MORE 'The timing of putting it on is pretty cool, because I think it's Martin's way of going, 'Stories are important, and we learn through stories, and we have to be able to tell stories in the way that they're originally designed'.' The play is 'another level of dark, even for Martin McDonagh'. 'He really leans into it in a delicious way. I just thought I absolutely have to do this,' says Fee, whose character's brother, Michal, is being played by his fellow northerner Ryan Dylan , in a production directed by the Olivier winner Lyndsey Turner. For Fee, whose last project was the Bafta-nominated BBC series Lost Boys and Fairies, The Pillowman is 'a homecoming of sorts', as a decade ago the actor played Romeo in the Gate's production of Romeo and Juliet . Martin McDonagh, whose play The Pillowman is being staged in Dublin. Photograph: Todd Heisler/The New York Times But for his costar, who was one of the writers and stars of the comedy Funboys – also on the BBC – earlier this year, it's his stage debut. 'Most of the time I'm freaking out,' Dylan says in a room backstage at the Gate , before their first full run-through of the play. 'The first three weeks I was freaking out – just, like, 'I can't believe I'm here, can't believe I'm doing this,' so I was taking it very seriously, locking in. I was, like, 'Don't laugh. Don't laugh.' In the last week or two I'm really starting to enjoy everyone's company and ... it settles in.' 'I had no idea,' Fee says, laughing. Dylan calls The Pillowman a miserably good play. 'I remember reading the script and going, 'Aw, God, that's just really upsetting.' I do a lot of sketches up north, and I do play a lot of crazy characters, eccentrics and Michal-adjacent characters,' he says. 'Lyndsey is so good. She's just so conscientious and supportive and intelligent. She really has made me feel at ease.' 'Just on a purely practical level,' Fee, who was born in Co Tyrone, adds, 'it really helps that we've got a really similar accent. I was thrilled when Lyndsey said that Ryan was from Armagh.' Julian Moore-Cook, who plays Ariel, one of the detectives, is also from the North. 'It's certainly helpful for the audience,' Fee says – 'just an immediate sense that these boys are from the same place, at the very least. We need them to believe for an evening that we're brothers ... It really works rhythmically, because we're all using our own accents.' (The day we meet, it could be hard to see Fee and Dylan as brothers, but the next day Dylan has his hair dyed a few shades darker, bringing his look closer to Fee's. It makes a surprising difference.) That the actors sound so similar could help prompt audiences to read the play through an Irish lens. But the world of the drama is in no sense Ireland, according to Fee. 'This is an imagined totalitarian state that happens to have Irish accents,' he says. 'I don't think it's, like, 'This is Ireland if it was controlled in some sort of fascist regime.' It's definitely a made-up world.' One of their first tasks during the table readings for the play, Fee says, was stripping back the brothers' relationship, which was shaped by childhood trauma. The events the play depicts amount to 'an exceptional circumstance – it's an extraordinary day – so you need to then think about what's an ordinary day, to get a feel of who they are as brothers and what their sort of camaraderie is. 'We basically came to the conclusion that they essentially just have each other. It's not a really broad social network of people. It's pretty much them – the stakes are really high because they are each other's world.' [ Low lie the Fields of Peckham Rye: Martin McDonagh and the London Irish Opens in new window ] The Pillowman deals with weighty themes – after Michal implicates Katurian in the murders, for example, his brother resigns himself to being executed. How do the actors manage to leave the emotions their characters' predicament generates behind at the theatre when they go home each night? 'I find that the darker the material you're doing, the more fun you're having outside of it. Even if it's unconsciously just, 'I'm going to go have a laugh, because you can't take that mood home',' says Fee, who adds that the show is also extremely funny. 'I've been holding in laughs. It's really serious, but it's almost so dark it's absurd, so that makes you laugh. I think we're getting to expel that energy as well.' 'That's one thing, actually, that I'm anticipating, is laughter from an audience,' says Dylan, who has been keeping his media consumption light outside of the rehearsal room. 'I've stopped watching really dark stuff, probably because I'm doing it throughout the day and don't want to overload. A general practice of mine, if I'm trying to write something or do anything long term like this, is I just try to keep life outside of the acting boring, boring, boring. 'I want to give a shout out to Deadliest Catch, because that's been getting me through – just a boring, dumb show,' he says of the long-running series about life aboard Alaskan crab-fishing boats. At one point in our conversation Fee remarks that The Pillowman is like McDonagh's love letter to stories, and to 'having the freedom to tell the stories'. A key theme of the play is the related issue of artistic legacy. It's a question Katurian especially grapples with. Fee quotes one of his lines: 'It isn't about being or not being dead, it's about what you leave behind.' 'We all will leave this earth,' Fee says, 'and I guess all of us probably like the idea of leaving just a little imprint. Martin's way is just leaving this wealth of stuff that he's created. There's something really beautiful about that, and admirable. It doesn't make you a narcissistic egomaniac to want to leave something behind.' The Pillowman's lines could be a challenge to learn, Fee says – and he didn't help himself just before rehearsals started by 'stupidly' reading an interview with the singer Lily Allen, who played Katurian – the first woman to portray the character – in the West End of London in 2023. [ Lily Allen on working with Martin McDonagh: I would say things that might shock people, and he would be smiling Opens in new window ] It was 'just for the craic – like, 'I wonder how Lily Allen got on with this role.' And she's, like, 'I started learning my lines five months ago, because there's so many stories to learn.' 'And I was, like, 'Oh, my God. I've left it too late.' I kept thinking, 'It's five weeks away: that's not enough time.' But it's okay – touch wood.' The Pillowman is in preview at the Gate Theatre , Dublin. It opens on Wednesday, July 9th, and runs until Sunday, September 7th
The Independent
19-05-2025
- Politics
- The Independent
UK and Irish governments should ‘consider their actions' over Kneecap funding
The UK and Irish governments should 'consider their actions' with regard to any funding provided to Irish rap trio Kneecap, a Stormont minister has said. Communities Minister Gordon Lyons said the actions of the the band amounted the 'glorification of terrorism' and went well beyond artistic licence. The group has seen gigs cancelled after historic concert footage appeared to show a member of the group shouting 'up Hamas, up Hezbollah', and another video allegedly showing one calling for Conservative MPs to be killed. Made up of Liam Og O Hannaidh, Naoise O Caireallain and JJ O Dochartaigh, the group has faced an investigation by counter-terrorism police after the videos, filmed in 2023 and 2024, became public. Mr Lyons was asked during ministerial question time at the Northern Ireland Assembly on Monday if his department had provided funding to Kneecap since 2017. He said: 'Neither my department nor any of its arm's length bodies have provided any funding to Kneecap since 2017.' TUV MLA Timothy Gaston referred to a planned gig in Belfast this August where Kneecap is set to support Irish rock band Fontaines DC. He said: 'As the minister responsible for local government, what are you doing to stop this pro-IRA rap group from turning Belfast City Council-owned Boucher Road playing fields into their personal propaganda stage?' Mr Lyons responded: 'The member will be aware that although I oversee local government legislation, it is up to individual councils to make their own decisions in those regards. 'But I hope that local councils would take into consideration some of the good relations issues that have been raised in light of some of the comments that have been made by Kneecap. 'Not only by Kneecap, but all of those that would seek to engage in what is essentially the glorification of terrorism.' DUP MLA Jonathan Buckley asked the minister if he agreed the UK and Irish governments 'need to fully distance themselves from the funding of racist, antisemitic and sectarian state sponsorship in the view of Kneecap?'. Mr Lyons said it was the responsibility of all to call out such behaviour. He said: 'There are always things we can disagree with which other people do in the arts sphere but this is going far beyond anything which comes anywhere close to dealing with artistic licence. 'This is the glorification of terrorism and this is also supporting, calling for violence towards MPs. 'It is incumbent on us to call that out and I would also call on the UK Government and the Irish Government to consider their actions in this regard.' Last year, Kneecap won a discrimination case against the UK Government in Belfast High Court after former business secretary Kemi Badenoch tried to refuse them a £14,250 funding award. People Before Profit MLA Gerry Carroll asked the Communities Minister if his department had given funding to any organisations that have been publicly singing 'up to our necks in Fenian blood?'. Mr Lyons said it was up to the Arts Council of Northern Ireland to determine funding policies. He added: 'What I won't do is what some are trying to do which is to judge the entire bands community by the actions of a few if they have fallen beneath expected standards.'
