Pictured: (left to right) Cyd Blakewell, Gregory Fenner, Martel Manning and Jay Worthington.

The Gift Theatre has announced the cast and design team for its revival of Martin McDonagh’s THE PILLOWMAN, directed by Laura Alcalá Baker.

The all-ensemble cast includes Cyd Blakewell as Tupolski, Gregory Fenner as Ariel, Martel Manning as Katurian and Jay Worthington as Michal.

The production team includes Lauren Nichols (scenic design), Izumi Inaba (costume design) and David Goodman-Edberg (lighting design).

Once upon a time, there lived a writer who only wrote gruesome tales. He lived with his brother under the watchful eye of an unnamed authoritarian regime. But when a string of horrific child murders begin to mirror his frightful tales, our writer finds himself before two investigators who want more than answers.

“What most interests me is unraveling the threads of survival and what survival looks like in the face of dire conditions,” comments Alcalá Baker. “Every character in this piece is out to save something, but what they wish to save and the lengths to which they will go are unthinkable. The mind will go to extremes to create equilibrium in the face of traumatic events and that is our exploration in this production.”

Gift Artistic Director Michael Patrick Thornton and Associate Artistic Directors Emjoy Gavino and Paul D’Addario add, “We have been excited about Laura’s singular talent for years, ever since first collaborating on TEN. She is a refreshingly penetrating thinker willing to ask big questions and explore the often scary aesthetical hallways of the imagination without a flashlight. She is a giant talent and we are honored to have her working on our third McDonagh production at The Gift.”

THE PILLOWMAN will play February 27 – March 29, at The Gift’s home 4802 N. Milwaukee Ave. in Chicago’s Jefferson Park neighborhood.