Opposite Kick Ass’s Aaron Taylor-Johnso

Steve Pemberton is to star in the West End premiere of award-winning dark comedy The Pillowman.  

The Inside No 9 star will appear alongside Kick Ass’s Aaron Taylor-Johnson in the play about  a fiction writer (Aaron-Taylor) living in a police state who is interrogated about his short stories and their similarities to a number of bizarre child murders occurring in his town. 

The play – penned by Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri writer Martin McDonagh – received the 2004 Olivier Award for best new play, when it ran at the National with David Tennant, Jim Broadbent and Nigel Lindsay in the cast.

 McDonagh said: ‘The Pillowman is a play that's always been very close to my heart, in terms of its combination of the darkest of dark comedy with its exploration of the nature of story-telling itself. 

‘It's a play that I haven't wanted to have staged in London until I could find the perfect director and the ideal cast for it… and having been an admirer of Steve and Aaron's work for many years, I feel it's the perfect time to find out what a whole new generation makes of this peculiar tale.’

Directed by Matthew Dunster, the production  runs at the Duke Of York’s Theatre from July 24 to October 17. Tickets are available here.

Last month, we reported that Pemberton's Inside No 9 co-creator Reece Shearsmith was to star in Steven Moffat's new play, The Unfriend, directed by Mark Gatiss, at the  Chichester Festival Theatre,  from July 17 to August 22, 

Published: 1 Mar 2020