‘Hangmen’ deals with human darkness hilariously

Martin McDonagh’s deep reservoir of Irish black humour – from which his plays and filmscripts spring – abounds in his play Hangmen, now on at the New Theatre in Newtown.

You will probably know McDonagh from his films In Bruges, Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri and The Banshees of Inisherin, or perhaps from his early trilogy The Beauty Queen of Leenane.

McDonagh won numerous awards for all of these, which is not surprising as he has the great gift of tickling our funny bone while dealing with the darkest of human behaviour.

Hangmen, which won the 2016 Olivier Award for Best New Play, opens dramatically with a young man being dragged off to the gallows protesting his innocence. But it’s 1965, and guess what, capital punishment has just been abolished in the UK. Nevertheless, he is hanged.

The scene changes to a dingy old pub in north England, where the bombastic barman, Harry Wade (played by the inimitable Nathan Farrow), holds court over a trio of drunks. Harry cherishes his reputation as the second best hangman in Britain.

Harry’s wife Alice (Sonya Kerr) runs the boarding rental part of the business, and worries about her nervous, resentful 15-year-old daughter Shirley (Kim Clifton), whom she and her husband call “moody”.

Life at the pub is interrupted when a flashy fraudster (Peter Mooney) walks in wanting to rent a room. Shades of Pinter indeed!

From this point, rumour and suspicion abound, especially when young Alice disappears after breakfast. There is talk of an earlier grisly murder of a young woman on a local beach, and, naturally, suspicion falls on the stranger.

The supporting cast is terrific. They included Gerry Mullaly as the Prison Guard and Bill, Jack Elliott Mitchell as Syd Armfield, and Georgia Nicholas as the reporter Doris Clegg.

Deborah Mulhall directed the play to maximum effect in both its light and dark moments, as well as contributing to the excellent sound design with Mehran Mortezaei.

The music by Jim McCrudden, who also played the Governor and Albert Pierrepont, was terrific, and set and costume design by Tom Bannerman and Helen Kohlhagen respectively contributed greatly to this terrific production.

Hangmen
Until September 14
New Theatre