A brand-new Oxfordshire-based theatre company will make its official stage debut at The Old Fire Station in Oxford this coming January 2027, launching with a production of Martin McDonagh’s acclaimed black comedy The Pillowman.
Founded by actor and sound designer Eloise Sheffield alongside musician and producer Dan Knight, the nascent company is bringing an ambitious creative vision to the regional stage. Their maiden production promises a striking theatrical experience, distinguished by a bold approach to sound atmospheric scoring and detailed production design.
McDonagh’s celebrated play centres on a fiction writer whose disturbing short stories begin to mirror a series of gruesome real-world child murders. Dragged into a chilling interrogation room, the writer faces two detectives whose coercive methods prove just as unsettling as the crimes in question. As fiction and reality collide, the narrative examines the power of storytelling, the boundaries of artistic freedom, and the uneasy friction between dark imagination and personal responsibility. Written by the Academy Award-nominated filmmaker behind The Banshees of Inisherin, In Bruges, and Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri, the work combines disturbing fairy tales with pitch-black humour and psychological suspense.
Co-founders Eloise Sheffield and Dan Knight noted that the upcoming production is tailored for audiences drawn to dark, morbid storytelling and razor-sharp satire. The award-winning play has earned sustained international acclaim since its premiere, with critics highlighting its spellbinding narrative structure and uncompromising comedic tone.
The Pillowman runs at The Old Fire Station from Wednesday 20 January through Saturday 23 January 2027, with nightly evening performances scheduled for 7.30pm. Ticket prices range from £14 to £26, with an age guidance recommendation of 16 and over due to the production's mature themes and psychological intensity.
