Looking at the nature of what makes an artist, and do you control your art or does it control you, Steppenwolf Theatre's production of Irish playright Martin McDonagh's "The Pillowman" has finally made its Chicago premiere, after long runs in London and on Broadway. It was in New York, that Billy Crudup played the short story writer, Katurian K. Katurian (that's not a misprint), who is dragged into police headquarters. Here, local boy Jim True-Frost, familiar to Steppenwolf audiences and fans of HBO's acclaimed "The Wire", takes on the role of the artist who has no idea why the unnamed totalitarian state in which he lives has pulled him ­ and his mentally challenged brother into HQ. As questioning goes on, we learn that a series of child murders eerily parallel the more grotesque moments in the writer's short stories. Could the writer be acting out his own tales or is someone else responsible, and why do the police get to determine what makes good art?   On Broadway, Jeff Goldblum's often off kilter delivery made his cop stranger than the writer. Here, Tracy Letts makes his take equally commanding in a different way, still keeping the audinece guessing his intentions and motives. True-Frost has moments that are very sympathetic, but his crucial connection to Michael Shannon as his brother doesn't always ring true in the crucial climactic scene of Act I. Nevertheless, the play and the performances, including Steppenwolf Theatre member Yasen Peyankiv as the bad cop (or is he good?) remain riveting. As are the stories within the play. Only later do secrets come out, as scenes from Katurian's often horrific tales play out. New York's staging set the action for these stories on a second level, while Steppenwolf employs their huge stage to place the action of these side stories on an advancing and retreating proscenium stage on the stage. I preferred the more gothic take on the gruesome tales in the New York production, but they are still rendered with a fascinating childlike innocence here.