A WRITER is interrogated about a spate of murders that bear an uncanny resemblance to his short stories. Is it a case of life imitating art?
Well, you never know in the world of writer Martin McDonagh whose Banshees of Inisherin divided reviewers in 2022 before going on to win a raft of awards. But West Belfast woman Emma Jordan is on familiar territory, directing a McDonagh play with the highly acclaimed The Pillowman opening at the Lyric Theatre next week.
With rehearsals ongoing she says the Belfast audience won’t have seen anything like this production before.
“The play isn’t set in a specified place, it’s very different from the rest of McDonagh’s writing, in that it’s not necessarily set in Ireland which is usually the space where all of his plays happen,” said Emma. “It begins with the interrogation of a writer who writes stories which are a series of mimics of child murders that have happened in the town that he lives in so he is being interrogated.
“So it’s a big mixture between a very dark and very funny interrogation scene between him and two cops and then it veered way off peak in the animation of some of his stories. You are kind of in one world of interrogation and in the next world you’re in a deep, dark forest and you are being told really dark tales that this writer writes. It’s very theatrical and it’s very funny and it’s a weird mixture of horror and humour.”
The black humour that McDonagh is renowned for comes to the fore in The Pillowman, says Emma. She says this play was his move towards his successful film career.
“I directed Beauty Queen (of Leenane) here last year so I kind of feel like I’ve been living with McDonagh for a while and I love his film work as well, but this play even more than the Leenane trilogy lives more in the world of some of his films in that they are not quite real so I sometimes think that with the Banshees of Inisherin they freak people out a wee bit because the humour is very dark – even when you are dealing with the most horrible things you’re laughing and you don’t quite know why you are laughing.”
Emma Jordan directing The Pillowman
Emma said it is a privilege to direct a Martin McDonagh play.
“He’s just such a brilliant writer and he never has a spare word,” she said. “Sometimes when you’re working on a play their flaws are revealed. But with McDonagh I think whenever you are working on his plays his eye for detail and nuance and character are revealed – everything gets deeper, so it’s really enjoyable work.”
Emma is artistic director with Prime Cut who do a lot of co-productions with The Lyric in Belfast. She said it was at St Louise’s on the Falls Road that she first found her passion for the arts.
“I went to St Louise’s when the Theatre Department was at the height of its power under Fidelma McVeigh and in my class was Geraldine Hughes, Kathy Kiera Clark, Katie Tumelty, Maria Moore and Ursula Burns – all of us one way or another have forged careers in either acting or the performing arts, directing and make-up design. It was a really special time with the energy that was within that Department.
“It was a very specific time in the history of West Belfast where there was a kind of attraction when there was so much chaos all around, that the escape that the theatre provided was a really positive outlet for a lot of young people."
