Act One Part One

Today we blocked out the beginnings of Act One, Scene One.

Now that we have been cast, we are beginning to block out the scenes of the play. This first look at the scenes won’t go too far into the examining of individual lines but is more about staging and identifying motivations and key lines in the text.

Today we looked at the very first scene of the play, where Katurian has been arrested and finds himself in a detention centre, having no understanding of why he has been brought here. In this section of the scene he meets the other two main characters, detectives Tupolski and Ariel, and learns that he has been brought here because of his stories.

In The Pillowman, I play the character of Tupolski. My version of the character will be female, but I will reference Tupolski as written in the play.

Tupolski is the leading detective in the investigation and he truly believes that Katurian is responsible for the murder of three children. One of Tupolski’s main characteristics is that he good at understanding, and therefore manipulating people.  A large part of the way he acts within the play is staged in order to frighten, confuse or convince Katurian into confessing. On entering the stage, Tupolski behaves kindly towards Katurian in order to lull him into speaking freely. However there are moments when he becomes more serious and focussed, and then his calculating nature becomes more evident- these are times when the questioning is heading in a direction that Tupolski feels is especially important to the case.

So for example, during the line “I’m not like some of these…” Tuposlki’s attitude changes and he becomes more serious. The full stop preceding the line “I don’t know.” Is a moment where we decided my character should lean back in his chair and cross his legs, so that the shift in intrigue can be seen by the audience and even as a cue to Katurian to think carefully about his response to Tupolski’s next question.

Another part Tupolski plays is in his relationship with Ariel. Throughout the play these two must work together, but there is an underlining sense of conflict in their partnership that increases as the play goes on. For example, there is a clash between the two over interrogation methods. Ariel just wants to torture the truth out of him, but Tupolski prefers to speak with Katurian. Here Ariel speaks out in the middle of Tupolski’s questioning and my character must pause in order to say “who’s the Number one on this investigation Ariel, me or you?” This is followed by a pause as Tupolski listens for Ariel’s objection. His only response is to crunch his boiled sweet. In my opinion this should be interpreted as Ariel having a problem with Tupolski’s authority, but at this point he is not angry enough to voice it out loud.  I believe that this conflict is falsified by the detectives as part of their interrogation tactics.

 Outside of his job, I feel that Tupolski finds it difficult to make strong connections with others, as a result of detaching himself from most emotion in his job. However, I do think that Ariel and Tupolski share a comradeship that perhaps isn’t the same as what we would consider a ‘normal friendship’.

There are times in the play when the detectives work together. Each time Katurian mentions that they are in fact “not friends” both characters share a look that suggests this line is offensive to them. This helps to build tension for Ariel’s character, so that when Katurian finishes her line, Ariel has anger to motivate him into pulling Katurian of the chair and against the wall, following with “I’m going to hit you so hard in the fucking head.”

I think this clearly expresses the roles that they both play. Ariel’s position is to be threatening and unpredictable in order to shock the audience with his actions. Tupolskis lack of concern over his attack is more unnerving and shows how Katurian won’t be able to gain sympathy in order to escape.