The Pillowman

Content Warning: This section of the guide includes discussion of murder (including child victims), suicide, child abuse (including sexual abuse), ableism, racial discrimination, graphic violence (including police brutality), substance abuse, and mental illness.



Katurian, the play’s protagonist, is a writer under investigation for murder. His devotion to his brother and his writing also makes him a hero, though his actions are sometimes morally ambiguous. Katurian’s parents performed a social “experiment” on him as a child by horrifically torturing his brother, Michal, within earshot of Katurian every night. The experiment was designed to foster Katurian’s creativity, and the traumatic experience is evident in Katurian’s stories, which are horrifically dark and gruesome. Katurian works at a slaughterhouse, though he points out that his job there is neither to kill animals nor cut meat. This insistence that he is innocent of the violence inherent to his profession reflects his understanding of his role in the crimes he is being investigated for: His stories inspire the murders and are therefore adjacently involved, but Katurian does not directly commit them. He does, however, kill both of his parents to save Michal from their abuse, and eventually he kills Michal to save him the pain of being executed.