Hangmen

Hangmen by Martin McDonagh tells the story of the last Hangman in England, Harry Wade. We first meet him in 1963 when he is carrying out his work and is about to hang James Hennessy, a young man who protests his innocence to the bitter end. The play then moves forward to 1965. Harry owns a pub in Oldham that he also lives above with his wife, Alice, and his fifteen-year-old daughter, Shirley. He is contending with the abolition of hanging in Britain while the pub is filled with cronies and sycophants, as well as a journalist who is trying to interview him about his role as a Hangman and his thoughts on the abolition. 

The open stage is in semi darkness. A man is lying on a bed in what appears to be a prison cell with two men standing either side of the stage. Through an open doorway at the back of the stage a man is playing various tunes on a Cornet. Stage Left a noose is hanging down and to the right is a lever. The opening scene sees the Cornet Player, Steve Walker, now playing ‘Abide With Me’, and as he slowly moves off, the sound fades and a bell tolls. What follows is quite harrowing as we realise we are in a condemned cell with several prison officials and officials, the Hangman, his assistant and the person on the bed is Hennessy, admirably played by Tom Bannister, who has been sentenced to die by hanging. He is clinging to the bed hysterically and vehemently protesting his innocence. After much struggling, he is knocked out, dragged across the stage, a bag is put over his head and the noose is put around his neck. The hangman moves to the right, pulls the lever and Hennessy is raised and left literally, hanging. It was just so well executed (sorry) and together with most effective lighting it all added to a total heart-rending, dramatic and quite disturbing scenario. Time moves to 1965 and we are now in Harry’s pub. There is a bar counter complete beer pumps, tables, stools, a coat stand, a curtained area and the door at the back with BAR (reversed of course) on a glass panel. Throughout, drinks were constantly being served to customers (some obviously were Bitter Beer and some Mild a nice touch). There are two main characters that really are the lynchpins of the whole play, namely Harry Wade and Peter Mooney. Harry ‘The Hangman’ was brilliantly played by Rob Dean. Harry is a complex character and Rob totally captured all of these traits from his bluntness, his self-opinionated ego, his aggressiveness, his rudeness and his most unpleasant dismissal of his wife and particularly of his daughter. When confronted by a reporter, wanting to interview him about his work and thoughts on the abolition of hanging, he quite adamantly states that he always remains silent on the subject. However, when the reporter mentions Albert Pierrepoint’s tally of executions then his pride and jealousy of Pierrepoint gets the better of him and he agrees to the interview, but it must be taken upstairs! An outstanding performance was delivered by Steve Cowley as Peter Mooney. He suddenly appears in the pub coming from the South (great accent) to request a room at the pub. He completely commands the stage and so superbly switches from being outrageously self-assured and arrogant, continually antagonising everyone in the pub with his ideas and mannerisms, to smoothly offering to buy everyone a round of drinks. He is at his most sickeningly slimy and creepy (no, in his words - not creepy but menacing) when trying to ingratiate himself with Shirley, Harry’s daughter, his insidious actions really made my flesh creep. His reactions were superb, after Harry thought that he had abducted his daughter, when he bludgeoned him, and with help managed to put a rope around his neck and stood him on a stool. However, Pierrepoint himself appeared and they had to quickly hide him behind a curtain but the inevitable did happen!! It was truly a remarkable and exceptional portrayal by Steve. A praiseworthy performance came from Nathan McNicholas as Syd, who was once Harry’s assistant but dismissed for inappropriate behaviour! A somewhat seemingly weak, and dithery sort of character Nathan played it to perfection managing so well to plant seeds of doubt concerning the innocence of Hennessy and the disappearance of Shirley. There were three ever present pub customers who definitely added some humour to the situation and were all excellent. Firstly, there was Arthur, who was hard of hearing, played by John Preston, and his friend Charlie, played by Ray Dell. They were a perfect double act mainly because Arthur missed most of what was said by others, so Charlie had to repeat, and in a very loud voice, everything that had been said, it was just so funny. Then there was Bill, a self-confessed alcoholic, played by Harry Nixon. He was terrific, his every action displayed the stereotypical nuances one associates with a ‘drunk’ from his stance to his slurry speech. There was one another regular, Fry, who was a Police Inspector, and we witnessed yet another excellent performance from David Brooks. A fine and convincing delivery came from Ann Hawkswood as Harry’s wife. She was most definitely the strong presence in the establishment, albeit at times she was undermined by her husband, and her love for her daughter was palpable. A very delightful portrayal came from Annie Phillips as Shirley, the young daughter. She delivered the ‘shyness’ of the character wonderfully and although it was particularly ‘creepy’ it was no wonder that she wanted to believe Mooney’s flattering advances especially as her father so undermined her confidence, so much so that she went to meet Mooney, at his suggestion, but of course, he didn’t turn up. Splendid support came from Carl Eaton as the Reporter, a most strident delivery came from Dave Banks as Pierrepoint and a brief appearances made by Darren Siseman as the doctor The one other set change was that of a cafe which was brought forward on a truck. It was very suitably dressed with appropriate accoutrements and was a meeting place for Mooney and Syd and I loved the fact that Mooney actually ‘ate food” whilst taking part in the conversation. 

I never really understood the mystery behind Mooney’s appearance. I thought at first that he had come for revenge for the death of Hennessy and somehow had connections with Syd who also wanted revenge for his dismissal as Harry’s assistant. I’m still wondering, but on refection it did occur to me that there were some parallels to be drawn in that Harry had hanged one supposedly innocent man and now had hanged another who was definitely proved to be innocent (especially as Shirley turned up). I’m obviously really second guessing here, but innocence and the abolition of hanging certainly have some connections - I’m just trying to solve the enigma for my own satisfaction and am probably well off track!         

The sets, props, costumes, lighting and sound were all splendid and compliments must go to the excellent Back Stage Team for all their efforts. Many, many congratulations to Director Mark Daly for not only putting together such a formidable and talented cast but also for his effective interpretation of this, at times funny but mostly disturbing, thought provoking and extremely challenging play. It was indeed an exceptional production.

© NODA CIO.  All rights reserved

© NODA CIO. All rights reserved.