4Play Theatre Company present The Pillowman (From Hereford Times)

4Play Theatre Company present The Pillowman

3:50pm Thursday 12th January 2012 in Theatre & Comedy

AS it has for more than 10 years now, the new year brings with it the excitement of a new production from Hereford’s 4Play Theatre Company.

For its 2012 production the company will present Martin McDonagh’s Olivier Award-winning play The Pillowman which, as we’ve come to expect from 4Play, is a dark and challenging, but viciously funny, piece.

“There’s little point in giving audiences only what they expect to see,” says director Paul Murray, a former manager of Greenwich Theatre and a big fan of 4Play’s work, who joins the team for the first time to direct The Pillowman.

“The brutality and blackness of the play is undercut with a lot of theatricality and surreality, which gives audiences the security to enjoy some of the more risky bits.”

One of 4Play’s principal motivations is a determination to engage people who don’t watch theatre.

They’re hoping the fact that The Pillowman comes from the pen of the man who wrote the Bafta award-winning In Bruges will encourage people to leave their armchairs and come and enjoy a different type of entertainment.

“That’s the reason for 4Play, to do things you won’t find elsewhere in Hereford,” says Alex Evans, a member of the current incarnation of the company.

While Alex’s brother Tim left Hereford to found The Factory Theatre Company, Alex is not tempted.

“I like it when I’m there but I miss seeing hills and trees at the end of almost every street, and I don’t see why everything has to be London-centric,” he said. “Rural areas are just as entitled to good theatre.”

The company was started by a local group of aspiring actors and performers unable to find enough opportunities to stretch their theatrical muscles.

And so they created 4Play Theatre Company in order to gain as much experience as possible of working in the theatre at a professional standard, through performance, stagecraft and administration, an aim which has driven all their subsequent work.

“We put on productions not being put on anywhere else locally,” says Alex, who has been a member of 4Play for two years.

Paul, a former roadie with Pink Floyd and Santana among others, moved to Hereford 30 years ago, working initially as a teacher at Whitecross school before becoming a drama adviser for Herefordshire and Worcester, working for the local education authority. He also directed for Mad Dogs Theatre Company.

“I knew about 4Play,” he says, “I liked its work and I wanted to direct different plays, plays that I couldn’t have done when I was running a youth theatre.

“I’m really enjoying directing The Pillowman,” he says. “It’s really interesting. Challenging is an over-used word, but The Pillowman is really stretching – in the right way.”

The play tells the story of Katurian, played by Dan Hinchcliffe, another newcomer to 4Play. He is a writer of fiction living in a police state who is interrogated about the gruesome content of his short stories, and their similarities to a number of bizarre child murders occurring in his town.

Through narrations and re-enactments of the stories, the genesis of his disturbed imagination is revealed.

“What is interesting,” says Paul, “is that like all really good plays it’s not telling you something you didn’t already know but making you visit it in a new way.”

The Pillowman is at The Courtyard from January 25 to 28. To book, call the box office on 01432 340555

Click to go to The Courtyard