Laboratory Theater of Florida continues its 18 season with a production of Academy Award-winning playwright and filmmaker Martin McDonagh’s “The Pillowman.”
It is about a fiction writer in an unnamed totalitarian state who is being interrogated by a pair of detectives after a recent string of horrific child murders bears a striking resemblance to details in the author’s own disturbing short stories.
“The Pillowman” is perhaps McDonagh’s most structurally unusual play as it’s simultaneously a police interrogation, a psychological drama, a black comedy, and a collection of stories-within-the-story that will leave the audience guessing until the last minute.
The play will have audiences grappling with compelling questions concerning the responsibility of an artist. If an artist creates something disturbing and somebody uses that work to commit a terrible act, does the artist bear any responsibility?
The play also tackles themes of art as a response to trauma, the cycle of violence and abuse, censorship and authoritarian power, and the relationship between fiction and reality.
We will explore the play before it opens next week in a conversation with cast members Ryan Adair and Christian Rivero, who play the detectives.
If You Go:
Laboratory Theater of Florida’s production of “The Pillowman”
1634 Woodford Ave., Fort Myers, FL 33901
Performances run Oct. 8 – 25, 2026
Thursday, Friday, and Saturday evening performances start at 7:30 p.m.
Sunday matinee performances start at 2 p.m.
*Half-price preview performance on Thursday, Oct. 8 at 7:30 p.m.
*Due to mature themes this show is for audiences 18 and up.
