If I Pay Almost A Hundred Dollars For A Ticket, The Least The Playwright Can Do Is Shock Me A Little Bit

My hairdesser at Salon Violeta on 67th Street is not only an excellent hairdresser, he is also a theater critic. From time to time, he says, “You should see....” And I go, wherever he sends me.
A libertine must never obey orders unless they come from his hairdresser.
So this last summer, I saw The Pillowman by Martin McDonagh.
And, yes, I liked it. I was slightly surprised that a play about a child abuser who has the habit of cutting toes from little children made it to Broadway. But pleasantly surprised.
And, after all, a few years ago we had a play on Broadway about a man falling in love with a goat. It was The Goat, or Who is Sylvia? by Edward Albee.
(Full Disclosure: I once fell in love with a goat, but we never did more than a little bit of cuddling and hugging.)
Essentially, The Pillowman is about a child who wants to be like Jesus.
Let me write down a bit of the dialogue from this play for you: “Foster Parents: So you want to be like Jesus, do you? "Katurian: And he said, ‘Finally you fucking get it.’” I’m a sucker for plays and novels about children who want to be like Jesus. So I defended The Pillow Man when a fellow writer in France attacked it as superfluous violence that was just there to shock the audience.
Well, if I pay almost a hundred dollars for a ticket, the least the playwright can do is shock me a little bit.
Now Martin McDonagh’s play The Lieutenant of Inishmore is being staged in New York.
It is about an Irish terrorist with a weak spot for his cat.
The New Yorker did a profile on Mr. McDonagh, an article from which we learned many interesting things about his clothing.
“His plays have made him wealthy, and, in addition to his luxury apartment on the Thames, he has acquired a closet full of elegant, quietly expensive clothes.” I can only say this: When The New Yorker comes to profile you, keep your closets locked.
The Lieutenant was by no means the greatest thing on earth, but I laughed four times, which is a lot because I don’t laugh easily.
One of the last bits of dialogue in the play comes from a young man who complains that his hairstyle has been ruined by the terrorist.
Now, many people tend to forget, but some terrorists out there are not satisfied with just plain killing, they also want to ruin our hairstyles.
I’m thankful that Mr. McDonagh has reminded us that our hairstyles are worth defending.