Teddy Bear Day/Buffalo On The Block Day/International Pickle Festival (New York)/Doo Dah Parade (California)
2007-11-18 @ 8:45 p.m.

Throat a bit hoarse today, so worship was okay but I didn't manage to pull off How Can I Keep From Singing so well. Anyway, The Pillowman last night was bloody brilliant, and the creepiest play I've seen since Dead Certain. It's the first time I caught myself analysing the play while I was still watching things unfold, trying to hold it all in my head. Katurian's stories alone were worth the ticket price. I wish I could write like that, but I don't think I've led the kind of life that would lend itself to authentic writing in this vein. Dan's got a good account of what went on here, as does Eugene here, so I'll save myself the trouble of saying more or less the same things. I do disagree somewhat with Dan's postmodernist take (I think postmodernism is mostly rubbish, but Dan seems given to interpreting literature through its lens), as well as Eugene's assertion that it wasn't funny (I happen to like this sort of sick, twisted humour, which Eugene finds dismally bleak). Interestingly, this is one of those plays that didn't have any individually striking lines, but the sum total of the dialogue was made that much more powerful. It simply has to be experienced to be understood, so for those of you who haven't got tickets, you'll just have to go somewhere else to catch it, as the entire run is already sold out. I just checked, and Faber & Faber actually published the script, so theoretically, I could get myself a copy. I rarely feel the need to get scripts, but if I had to choose, I'd pick this one and Dead Certain. I have a thing for psychological thrillers. Haha...

We were all discussing the play over drinks at McDonald's. It was like being back in one of Mr Purvis's lessons, proposing and defending ideas. I came up with a theory to explain something that bothered all of us, namely why when questioned, Michal said he'd acted out The Little Jesus using the mute girl, when in reality, the story he'd recreated was The Little Green Pig (the only of Katurian's stories mentioned in the play that does not contain any disturbing element). The way I see it, Michal may not be as dumb as we're being led to believe. After all, in The Writer And The Writer's Brother, we're told that Michal had written a story before he died that far surpassed anything Katurian ever produced. While this represents a fictionalised account of the Katurian brothers' lives (since Michal is very much alive until Katurian smothers him right at the end of Act 1), it suggests to me that Michal's confusion, if not necessarily deliberate, nonetheless possesses metaphorical significance. Since The Little Jesus features a girl who believes she's the Second Coming, the mute girl thus represents a merger of the redemptive function of Jesus into Michal's favourite story, The Little Green Pig. (Randomly, note the similar structure of the titles! Haha, ok, that's just me being silly.) The eponymous pig obviously represents Michal himself, who in killing the two children, accidentally or otherwise, has been "painted" pink, becoming like his own abusive parents. Note that what was acted out was the ending, when all the pink pigs were turned green by a mysterious green shower in the night. So by having the mute girl painted green, Michal may actually be subconsciously signalling remorse in a belated plea for forgiveness, as well as a return to the status quo. (Remember that the little green pig was special, and it's all he wanted to be!) In turn, having Katurian tell that story one last time to Michal before killing him reaffirms that the fraternal bond, despite the harsh words of the preceding scenes, has not been severed.

Okay, I just had to type that chain of reasoning down because Eugene says that it made sense of the whole thing for him, and I also happen to think it's rather clever work for someone who's tumbling into bed at some ungodly hour. That and it's the only thing we discussed last night that I couldn't make sense of on the spot. Dan was wondering about the character names, in particular Katurian and Ariel. I can't say anything about the former, but I was quite perplexed that the literary connection the rest made was to Sylvia Plath's poem. Has nobody read The Tempest? Okay, so I'm a bit of a freak for getting my dad to buy me a Shakespeare anthology when I was in primary school, but it so happened that The Tempest was the first play in that book. I've forgotten most of it, but I do remember that Ariel was a spirit imprisoned by Sycorax in a cloven pine, which seems to be a more illuminating reference than to Plath, in light of what we know about The Pillowman's Ariel having been sexually abused by his father. Trapped by his anger and guilt, yes? Breaks out of said imprisonment at the end when he chooses not to burn Katurian's stories, yes? Damn, this play is good. It's got that whole multi-layered thing going on, and I really think it might be worth ordering the script through Amazon.com.

This week:

Family Week