Play: 'Hangmen'

I visited New York recently and hoped to see something on Broadway. Looking up what would be on, one play in particular caught my eye. Hangmen was first shown in 2015, so it is a fairly new play, set during the 60s, in the last days of hanging and the death penalty in England. I noticed actor Andy Nyman would be in the play, who I really admire and a few others, including (though I didn’t realise until he appeared on stage) David Threlfall – THE Martin Blower of Hot Fuzz. So that was a nice surprise.

Front row, in a packed theatre of a predominantly American (but no doubt some British) audience, the familiar Northern accents sounding from the stage were very reminiscent of watching Corrie, for a Southern English gal like me. It was like I never left England!

Many notorious final executions are mentioned during the play, alluding to the questions surrounding the morality of the death penalty and possible miscarriages of justice emerging at the time and which would eventually lead to its abolition.

The play is a darkly comic story about a stubborn local pub landlord, Harry, who considers himself one of the best appointed hangmen in Britain, whilst constantly alluding to the lesser achievements of his rival Pierrepoint, which inevitably comes back to bite him later on.

The woman next to me could be heard whispering to her partner her confusion at the stage setting being that of a prison jail cell from the off, and not the ‘pub’ as she (and others) were expecting from publicity shots. Lo and behold, a few minutes in of establishing the fate of an unfortunate, likely falsely accused inmate awaiting execution, the stage was elevated and indeed revealed the main setting of a Mancunian pub, where the characters would mostly congregate, discussing Harry’s dual employ of publican and hangman. Harry is being pursued by a young, enthusiastic reporter keen to get some words from the hangman himself on the latest unfortunate soul, inflating his ego in the hopes of getting a good scoop on the matter. Harry is careful not to reveal too much, though can’t hold back on boasting of what he sees as a more commendable and higher success rate to that of Pierrepoint.

Surrounded in the pub by his wife, daughter and locals, two other significant characters will be introduced/reappear with suspicious ulterior motives. This all leads to a revealed set of plot twists, offering a sinister turn and sprinkles of black comedy.

The performances were fantastic, smatterings of characters having their own personal quirks, and you can’t beat finding humour in that accent!

The script and dialogue offer some continuous rolling of comedic spiel, you often don’t have time to take a breath for laughing, but it is not without its more heartfelt and earnest moments, not least the forlorn mention of a now defunct Debenhams - oh irony!

There is another unique, though brief piece of set design from the 2nd half of the play, reminding us again of the possibilities of modern theatre production.

As we might say down South, it’s grim up North, but charming and comical nonetheless.