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Review: David Morrissey at his brutal best in The Hangmen (Includes interview and first-hand account)

The Hangmen is a new play written be playwright and screenwriter Martin McDonagh (In Bruges and Seven Psychopaths.) The play is currently being performed at The Royal Court Theatre in London, located in Sloane Square.

The Royal Court Theatre is a non-commercial theatre on Sloane Square  in the Royal Borough of Kensin...

The Royal Court Theatre is a non-commercial theatre on Sloane Square, in the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea, London. It is noted for its contributions to modern theatre.

The bar at the Royal Court Theater. People mingling before the start of the performance.

The bar at the Royal Court Theater. People mingling before the start of the performance.

The two leads are well known for television and theater work. Reece Shearsmith is perhaps best known for The League of Gentlemen; whereas David Morrissey, a fine Shakespearean actor, recently featured as the Governor in The Walking Dead. On stage Morrissey is tall, loud and convincing.

The central theme of the play is a queasy exploration of capital punishment, set during the period when capital crime was abolished in Britain. Having recent retired, the hangman who undertook the second highest number of executions Harry Wade is running a pub. One day a mysterious stranger comes in and things are not the same again. This may sound a heavy subject, but the staging is played out with a mix of humor, drama, tragedy and suspense.

Just before the start of The Hnagmen; the opening set - a prison cell - can be seen as the audience ...

Just before the start of The Hnagmen; the opening set – a prison cell – can be seen as the audience take their seats.

The play is set over the course of two years. The first part, a short section which acts as the opening of the play, takes place in 1963. Here a condemned man sits agitated in a prison cells, guarded by two wardens. Within a short time a party enters led by the “second most successful hangman in Britain,” Harry Wade (played by Morrissey) and his assistant, Syd (played by Shearsmith.) They have come to hang the prisoner. The prisoner protests his innocence but to no avail and he is executed, with the noose pulled around is head and then sent plunging to the cellar below.

The main part of the play follows, set in 1965. Most of the drama takes place in the pub located in Oldham in the north of England. The pub is authentically recreated, replete with uncomfortable looking furniture, cigarette machine, and just three types of beer available: mild, bitter or stout.

The lead hangman is now a publican, running the establishment with the help of his wife and occasionally his 15-year-old daughter (realistically portrayed by the up-and-coming Bronwyn James.) The regulars are mean of the second world war, sitting the other side of the 1960s “white heat of technology”; the daughter, into Elvis and the Beatles, represents the generation intent on leaving the drabness of the era behind.

Theatre ticket for The Hangmen by Martin McDonagh.

Theatre ticket for The Hangmen by Martin McDonagh.

The opening act centers on a reporter who has come to interview Harry Wade the day after the abolition of the death penalty in Britain (for all crimes, except treason.) Initially reluctant Wade’s ego soon warms to the prospect of a front-page spread in the local newspaper and recounts his experiences as a “state servant and executioner.” When probed about miscarriages of justice, he is uneasy but reaffirms his base philosophy that a few people wrongly executed is a price worth paying for capturing and killing those who were guilty of the more heinous crimes.

Later a young man enters, a flash Londoner called Mooney (played superbly by Johnny Flynn), seemingly at odds with much of the northern lifestyle (England’s north and south, class, and gender divisions are shown to be fractious several times within the play.) Monney’s character instantly creates a sense of unease, uttering: “Don’t worry. I may have my quirks but I’m not an animal. Or am I? One for the courts to discuss.”

The young man makes friends with the daughter and arranges to take her to see a school friend who has recently been incarcerated into a mental institution as well as trip to the seaside.

In the same day, Wade’s assistant Syd turns up and reveals he knows the man from London, and that the man from London knows about the execution shown at the start of the play, as well as emerging evidence in the newspapers that the man was in fact innocent. The play then darkly moves into a state of terror and panic. Does the Mooney want revenge for some reason linked to the execution shown in play’s prelude? Has Mooney kidnapped or killed the daughter? Is Syd himself seeking revenge on Wade? Will Wade take justice into his own hands on the Londoner? Who can and should engage in crime and punishment?

These complex issues are superbly played out by the actors with plenty of dark humor. Some parts of the play are comic; sometimes one laughs with the realization that the subject matter is not ordinarily a laughing matter. At other times the pace is tense, with an envelope of suspense.

A central theme to the play is the morality of the death penalty and the consequences that occur when the wrong life is taken. The desires and motivations of those who carry out executions is also explored. If a long period of a person’s life has been taken up with the execution of others, and plenty of time spent considering the details of the alleged crimes of those facing the noose, then what happens afterwards? How does someone redefine themselves?

If watching masterful actors at work, recreating a time when simple certainties become unraveled and where the darker side of human nature in unveiled, The Hangmen is a superb drama. Moreover, if you are a fan of David Morrissey then here he has never been better.

Digital Journal rating: 5 out of 5.

A flyer for The Hnagmen  a play by Martin McDonagh.

A flyer for The Hnagmen, a play by Martin McDonagh.

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Written By

Dr. Tim Sandle is Digital Journal's Editor-at-Large for science news. Tim specializes in science, technology, environmental, business, and health journalism. He is additionally a practising microbiologist; and an author. He is also interested in history, politics and current affairs.

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