Stills from Pillow Man. Photography / Zhu Zhaohui
Pillow Man: About anger and vulnerability
Reporter/Mao Yijun
Published in China News Weekly on August 5, 2019, Issue 910
An interrogation was taking place in the dark room. The amateur writer Katullan was stripped of his black hood and confronted by Detective Tuposki for questioning. He didn't know why he had been brought here. He thought that he had written more than 400 novels, except for two, all of which were related to child abuse.
In fact, three children are missing in the town, the first two have died tragically, and the third is missing. Police found some evidence pointing to Catullan and his brother Michal, whose IQ was stuck at 8 years old. The suspense is wrapped around a link, and the process of the case is the same as Catullan's black fairy tale novel, and his creation reflects the dark childhood of him and his brother.
It was a stage play by Martin MacDonald, the director and screenwriter of the 90th Academy Award for Best Picture, "Three Billboards," and was staged in London in 2003. Since then, the play has toured the world continuously, and has won the 2004 Olivier Best Drama Award in the United Kingdom, the 2005 Tony Award in the United States and the Best Drama Award in the New York Theater Critics Circle, which is known as a genius work in the history of modern theater.
In 2014, director Zhou Ke talked about the copyright, and "Pillow Man" became the first play opened by gulou west theater and the first official performance in China. This performance, which has been performed for five years, has always ranked first in the box office of the small theater. From August 1, "Pillow Man" was changed to a large theater version and performed at the Beijing Poly Theater.
Good and evil are one
The play begins with a dark fairy tale rendition. This fairy tale is Catullan's Writer and Writer's Brother, which mirrors Catullan's own upbringing: he was pampered by his parents from an early age, who guided him to write. Later, he discovered that he also had an older brother, who had been abused by his parents for many years and his IQ was damaged, and in the end, he covered his parents with a pillow and took on the responsibility of taking care of his brother, and the two lived on each other.
The fairy tale interpretation of this play within a play was originally interspersed in the middle of the whole play, but director Zhou Ke mentioned it to the beginning, wanting the audience to enter from the fairy tale, and the fairy tale also copes with reality, so that the audience can make their own prejudgments about the development of the story.
Catullan later went to the small town slaughterhouse to make a living, and in his spare time he wrote shady novels until he was arrested and tortured at the police station. To his surprise, his brother Michal was also locked up. While they are alone in prison, Michal reveals his child killings in a manner that mimics each of Catullan's three novels. But Michal does not feel that he is a torturer, but thinks that he is like the "pillow man" described in Catullan's other novel" "Pillow Man", helping them to be free when they find children who are trapped in a tragic childhood.
In this upcoming Thichyobazar version, Katullan's actor Wang Zichuan and Michal's wu song have more intense rivalry. Director Zhou Ke added some lines that were originally omitted from the script, which made Michal's image more complicated. Previously, Michal had favored a childlike innocence, and now his dark colors are increasing.
"Originally, we tried to make this character look cute as much as possible, but this time I want to say that there are evil parts in him. Because, a child who has been abused for seven years, it is impossible not to leave any mark on his heart. Zhou Ke told China News Weekly.
For such a change, actor Wu Song could not accept it. For five years, he had been deeply involved in the role, and he felt that some of the fierce lines that suddenly appeared should not come from Michal's mouth. In the last few couplets, Wu Song still couldn't accept this new role logic. Zhou Ke talked to him, and when it came to this story, every character is in a state of coexistence of good and evil, just like the police detective Tuposki in charge of the interrogation, who uses the superiority of controlling the fate of others to curb the self-doubt caused by the death of his young son; Detective Eril, who is using violence to vent the shadow of his childhood sexual assault by his father; and Catullan, after knowing the truth, decides to cover Michal with a pillow and then confess his guilt to avoid Michal suffering from the death penalty, and let his novel become the case file and seal it for fifty years. So that these manuscripts are not discarded and destroyed.
In the past five years, from the premiere to the present, Catullan's actor has gone through three actors. Initially, Zhao Lixin took on this role. In 2009, Zhao Lixin did a script reading of "Pillow Man" at the Beijing Penghao Theater. He has a special love for this play, and every time he plays it, he can't cry when he picks up the pillow to send his brother goodbye. He said, "This role makes me feel hard and difficult, which is equivalent to experiencing a particularly difficult life." So I need two or three hours of quiet every day when I get home, just sit there empty, and drain The Catullan stuff out, or I won't be able to sleep. ”
Chinese edition was born
Zhou Ke first saw the performance of "Pillow Man" in 2005, which was on Broadway. Previously, she graduated from the directing department of the Shanghai Theater Academy, stayed on to teach, and then directed a white-collar life drama "Single Apartment", which opened a "white-collar drama" trend in the circle. In 2005, she received support from the Asian Cultural Association to study in the United States as a visiting scholar.
Limited to her English level, she could not fully understand the lines when she saw "Pillow Man", but this did not prevent her from being moved by the story. At that time, the drama translator Hu Kaiqi happened to translate the script, and after reading it, she understood the parts that she had not understood before. After returning to China, she took the script to the Shanghai Dramatic Arts Center, but the other party refused, believing that the subject matter was too dark.
In 2007, Zhou Ke and two friends invested in the establishment of the "Ke Contemporary Art Center", which became the first private space in Shanghai to integrate performances, exhibitions and small cultural activities. She also began to prepare for the rehearsal of "Pillow Man", starting with a script reading session at the Ke Contemporary Art Center.
However, the art space lasted until its third year and faced huge operational pressures. Her son had another serious illness, and after various treatments, Zhou Ke left the theater circle and went to Dali to give himself a long vacation. She was in Yunnan, and Hu Kaiqi called her many times to suggest that she rehearse "Pillow Man", but she politely declined. In the years that followed, Zhou Ke shifted his focus to screenwriting and spent more time with children who had undergone surgery and gradually recovered.
In 2014, during the preparatory period of the Drum Tower West Theater, founder Li Yangduo thought of making some weighty works, but as for which plays to choose, she did not have a clear idea. Actor Zhao Lixin recommended "Pillow Man" to Li Yangduo, and personally starred in zero salary, and more importantly, he introduced Zhou Ke and Li Yangduo to meet. This time, Zhou Ke did not refuse. Therefore, there was this opening drama that made the Drum Tower West Theater famous just after it was built.
Anger and vulnerability
While collecting information on script creator Martin MacDonald, Zhou Ke found that Martin's parents were Irish immigrants who gave birth to him and his brother in south London. When he was 16, his parents returned to Ireland, leaving him and his brother in London. Zhou Ke wondered in his heart, "What happened in the middle of this?" ”
Later Martin MacDonald became a director and shined in the film industry. In 2006, Six Gunners won an Oscar. In 2008, Killer No Holiday was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay. In 2017, "Three Billboards" won the Best Screenplay Award at the 74th Venice International Film Festival, the Best Screenplay Award at the 75th Golden Globe Awards for American Film and Television, and the Best Picture award at the 90th Academy Awards.
He also displayed his talents in the theatre industry and was a representative of Britain's "head-on theatre wave", known for his absurd black humor and provocative spirit.
"I thought someone who could write stories like that must have been highly educated. But he was just a blue-collar worker, receiving relief money from the age of 16. One day he suddenly felt that he would have to spend the rest of his life in such an ordinary job? Let a particularly old-fashioned boss tell me, how to live? This is not the life I want. At that moment, there was extreme anger in his heart. "Martin is also a fan of punk rock, with a punk spirit. Anger is the most fundamental source of his creation. ”
Every character in the play has both an angry and vulnerable side. Detective Tuposki made up a story on the spot in front of Katulan. He spoke of an omnipotent and wise old man who seemingly inadvertently saved the life of a deaf-mute boy, saying that the old man represented himself. However, deep down, he was actually the deaf boy. Fiction is a unique way of spiritual redemption for some, for Martin Macdonald, and perhaps for the creators of the Chinese version.