From the devilishly inspired mind of Martin McDonagh—Academy Award®–winning writer of THREE BILLBOARDS OUTSIDE EBBING, MISSOURI—comes HANGMEN, a killer comedy nominated for 5 Tony Awards® including Best Play. What’s Britain’s second-most famous executioner to do now that hanging has been abolished?
Drink, of course. But when a cub reporter and a mysterious stranger turn up at his pub, everything hangs in the balance. HANGMEN marks McDonagh’s seventh play on Broadway, following his Tony-nominated productions of THE PILLOWMAN and THE LIEUTENANT OF INISHMORE. Winner of the Olivier Award for Best New Play and Set Design, HANGMEN plays a strictly limited engagement at the Golden Theatre after multiple sold-out engagements in London and Off-Broadway’s Atlantic Theatre Company.
'Hangmen' also contains some hanging plot threads that are not truly resolved or adequately explained. There may be a theme here about miscarriage of justice and toxic masculinity, but don't strain your neck too hard looking for it. A looser directorial hand would have made these nitpicks moot, because if there's a commitment to the ridiculous, a coherent story is less important. As it is, 'Hangmen' thoroughly wrings its premise dry, but anyone trying to find deeper meaning in McDonagh's play will be left hanging.
Fleischle's set, stunningly lit with bisexual lighting by Joshua Carr, screams money - the turn from prologue to pub is mesmerizing - but not distractingly or crassly so. Under Matthew Dunster's attentive direction, McDonagh's play unfolds with the breezy, engaging tension of the mod rock guitars that punctuate scenes (sound design by Ian Dickinson for Autograph). Hangmen is the kind of play we don't really see anymore. There's no immediate hook for our present day situation; it doesn't bend over backwards to make itself relevant. But it's a welcome callback to the plays that built contemporary theatre: sturdy, well-observed, and vividly performed.
2015 | West End |
Original West End Production West End |
2018 | Off-Broadway |
Atlantic Theater Company US Premiere Off-Broadway |
2022 | Broadway |
Broadway Premiere Broadway |
Year | Ceremony | Category | Nominee |
---|---|---|---|
2022 | Drama League Awards | Outstanding Direction of a Play | Matthew Dunster |
2022 | Drama League Awards | Outstanding Production of a Play | Hangmen |
2022 | Tony Awards | Best Lighting Design of a Play | Joshua Carr |
2022 | Tony Awards | Best Performance by an Actor in a Featured Role in a Play | Alfie Allen |
2022 | Tony Awards | Best Performance by an Actor in a Leading Role in a Play | David Threlfall |
2022 | Tony Awards | Best Play | Hangmen |
2022 | Tony Awards | Best Scenic Design of a Play | Anna Fleischle |
2021 | Theatre World Awards | Theatre World Awards | Gaby French |
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