With a tagline like “there are no happy endings in real life,” it’s clear that the latest show inside of the Black Box Theatre, “The Pillowman,” is not one of the comforting bedtime stories that mothers tell their children.

The show is perfect to kick off a haunting Halloween season, but may not be appropriate for all audiences due to the fact that the story contains intense situations and is intended for mature audiences only.

The story follows a writer held in an interrogation room in an unnamed state run by a totalitarian government. The writer is under trial over the murders of various children which echo the gruesome and twisted stories he’s written.

“In the stories, on a couple of them, the children die in the end. And in this town there have been a number of child murderers that are occurring and they’re tying closely to his short stories. So they bring him in thinking he has something to do with it. He’s sitting there like ‘I write stories’, but then things start to unfold throughout the play,” said Gregory Hernandez, senior theater major.

Hernandez plays one of the lead characters, Katurian. Katurian has a brother named Michael, played by David Jackson, who suffers from child abuse.

“I like playing troubled characters. I think I’ve had a habit for it and just being able to tap into that, I think is just fun and experimental,” said Jackson, a sophomore theater major.

Other characters in “The Pillowman” include Ariel, the bad cop and Tupolski, the good cop.

“Ariel is not your typical policeman. He’s rough around the edges and he’s kind of a violent guy. He doesn’t interrogate with words as much as action,” said Jake Hunsbusher, multimedia film production major.

“The Pillowman” will run in the Center for Arts and Theatre from Sept. 30 through Oct 7. The show begins at 7:30 p.m. with a 2 p.m. matinee on Sunday. Tickets are $6 for students and can be purchased at the box office or reserved by calling 912-478-5379.