Hangmen (play)

Hangmen is a play by the British-Irish playwright Martin McDonagh. It received its world premiere at the Royal Court Theatre, London, in September 2015, before transferring to the West End's Wyndham's Theatre. The play was directed by Matthew Dunster, designed by Anna Fleischle, and featured David Morrissey and Reece Shearsmith among others. It was universally acclaimed by theatre critics, and was nominated for numerous awards including the Olivier Awards, Critics' Circle Theatre Awards and the Evening Standard Theatre Awards. For its U.S. premiere in 2018 at Off-Broadway's Atlantic Theater Company, Hangmen won the New York Drama Critics' Circle Award for Best Foreign Play.

Synopsis
After a 1963 prologue showing British executioner Harry Wade at work, hanging a man, Hennessy, who goes to his grave proclaiming his innocence and pronouncing a curse on Harry, Hangmen flashes forward to 1965 in a town in northern England. The action centres around Harry, who we discover is the second-best hangman in the land. Harry owns a pub that he also lives above with his wife, Alice, and his fifteen-year-old daughter, Shirley. Harry is contending with the abolition of hanging in Britain while the pub is filled with cronies and sycophants, as well as a journalist who is trying to interview Harry about the abolition. Despite continually protesting that he has nothing to say on the record, Harry eventually takes the journalist upstairs and gives him an extensive interview, complete with disparaging remarks about the number-one hangman in England, named Pierrepoint. A smiling but menacing stranger named Mooney comes to the pub and stirs up some trouble, causing consternation among Harry and his cronies. Mooney inquires if there are any rooms about to let, and Alice offers him a room upstairs. But when Alice tries to call his references, Mooney explodes. Mooney also creepily flirts with Harry's daughter, Shirley, who later appears to go missing.

Over the next day or so, Mooney toys with Harry and leads him and his wife to believe that Mooney has kidnapped their daughter, Shirley. We learn that Mooney is in cahoots with Syd, one of the men in the bar and Harry's assistant hangman whom Harry has always treated with contempt. Syd is conspiring with Mooney to take Harry down a peg, but it becomes clear that Mooney may have more on his mind than just scaring Harry. Mooney's taunting eventually pushes Harry and his cronies to put a noose around his neck and stand him on a chair to force him to reveal Shirley's whereabouts. Suddenly, Pierrepoint, the best hangman in England, storms into the bar to confront Harry about the disparaging remarks Harry made about Pierrepoint in the paper. This forces Harry and his crew to hide the now choking Mooney behind a curtain. When Pierrepoint eventually leaves, Harry and company discover Mooney has been hanged behind the curtain, which was apparently Mooney's goal all along. Shirley returns to the bar, completely unharmed. The play ends with Harry and his friends soberly reflecting on what they have done, while Harry is also forced to deal with the justification of the hanging he performed at the very beginning of the play.

Production history


Hangmen is written by playwright Martin McDonagh. The play is set primarily in Oldham during 1965 and centres around the abolition of the death penalty in the United Kingdom. On 15 July 2015, it was announced by artistic director Vicky Featherstone, that the play would receive its world premiere as part of the Royal Court Theatre's autumn 2015 season. It marked McDonagh's first London play since 2003, when The Pillowman debuted at the National Theatre. The play began previews on 10 September 2015, with an official opening night on 18 September, booking for a limited period until 10 October.

The play is directed by Matthew Dunster, with fight direction by Kate Waters, design by Anna Fleischle, lighting design by Joshua Carr and sound design by Ian Dickinson. Following its premiere production the play transferred to the West End's Wyndham's Theatre, where it began previews on 1 December 2015, with its official opening night on 7 December, booking until 5 March 2016. A typical performance ran two hours and thirty minutes, including one interval.

Hangmen was published by Faber and Faber on 17 September 2015 and received a National Theatre Live broadcast on 3 March 2016.

An encore broadcast was shown at selected Vue Cinemas across the UK on 22 March 2016.

The Royal Court production transferred to Off-Broadway at the Atlantic Theater Company in New York from 18 January to 4 March 2018, with original cast members Reece Shearsmith, Sally Rogers and Johnny Flynn returning.

The play was scheduled to open on Broadway at the John Golden Theatre on 19 March 2020, but the run was cancelled because of the COVID-19 pandemic after thirteen previews. In February 2022, it was announced that the play was once again scheduled to premiere at the John Golden Theatre on 21 April that year, with previews beginning on 8 April. The production saw most of the 2020 cast return, with the exception of Dan Stevens as Mooney, Mark Addy as Harry and Ewen Bremner as Syd, replaced respectively by Alfie Allen, David Threlfall and Andy Nyman. The production closed on 18 June 2022.

Critical reception
The play has received positive reviews from critics.

The show won for best play and best set design at the 2016 Laurence Olivier Awards as well as being nominated in the best director category. It also won best play and best designer at the Critics' Circle Theatre Awards 2015 and best design at the Evening Standard Theatre Awards 2015.