James Karas
Martin McDonagh has created quite
a niche for himself as a playwright. His specialty is violence and black
humour. Neither element is in short supply in the theatre but McDonagh reaches
such heights in quantity and quality of both that you walk out of the theatre
after seeing his latest play, Hangmen, saying such brilliant words
like “wow” or can “can you believe that?”
Let’s look at the opening scene
of Hangmen. A young man named Hennessy
(Josef Davies) is in a prison cell and the hangman Harry (David Morrissey) and
his assistant Syd (Andy Nyman) arrive where two guards are waiting with the
prisoner. Harry is there to hang Hennessy who, not surprisingly, protests his
innocence.
Harry tells the “lad” quite
matter of factly that things will go easier if he does not make a fuss.
Hennessy replies that of course he will make a fuss. The audience roars.
As the guards try to subdue the
victim, he complains about not getting the best one in the business but being
assigned a rubbish hangman. Laughter again.
Harry tells him to relax and it
will all be easier for him. It won’t be easier, retorts Hennessy, because he
will be dead.
Harry whacks Hennessy across the
head with his Billy club; a noose is put around his neck and the floorboards
open letting him drop through. Job done,
the hanging crew goes for breakfast.
McDonagh maintains this
juxtaposition of utter cruelty and blackest humour throughout the play.
The play is set in 1963 when
capital punishment was nearing its end in Great Britain. But for Harry there is
a far more important issue than losing his calling: he will have to settle for
second-best hangman. Arthur (Simon Rouse) executed far more people and there is
no way Harry can catch up with him and join the pantheon as numero uno.
Physical violence is only one
tool in McDonagh’s panoply. The other tool is language. He uses a language that
is virulent, scatological, threatening, funny, outrageous as if it were a sharp
switchblade in the hands of an expert and remorseless criminal.
The cast of Hangmen in the bar. Photo copyright Helen Maybanks
Except for the first scene in the
prison, the play takes place in a pub owned by Harry and his wife Alice (Sally
Rogers). The discussions and perhaps celebrations about the last hanging and
the regret about its abolition are disturbed by the arrival of Mooney (Johnny
Flynn) a “stranger” to the region who knows a great deal about the last
execution. To make things worse, Harry’s young daughter Shirley (Bronwyn James)
goes missing, Mooney is implicated in her disappearance and if you thought the
first scene was enjoyable, you are in for another treat.
Hangmen, directed with great skill by Matthew Dunster, struck me
not so much as a play about capital punishment, people of interesting, let’s
say psychotic, moral fiber or appalling criminal injustice. All of those elements
amount to very little compared to the impact of the performance. It may be something
like a violent hurricane or a tsunami: a force hits you and you are left
stunned.
The performances are
pitch-perfect and the experience of seeing the play simply unforgettable.
A footnote: the play takes place
in northern England and most of the characters are from there. They speak with
an accent that is so thick and use words that even the Oxford English
Dictionary may have missed, such that I found myself following the flow of what
was said rather than having actual comprehension of some of the dialogue.
Hennessy has the same problem with them. Just before he is bludgeoned and
hanged, he complains that Harry can’t “talk normal” and yet he is hanging an
innocent man.
If the play is ever produced in
Canada, they may have to provide a glossary of unknown words if not simultaneous
translation.
__________
Hangmen by Martin McDonagh
continues at the Wyndham’s Theatre, Charing Cross Road, London, England.
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