Hangmen - New Theatre (NSW)

Written by Martin McDonagh. Directed by Deborah Mulhall

A lethal thriller filled with absurd and ironic characters caught up in blackest of comedic entanglements

Reviewed by Juliana Payne

New Theatre, Newtown

Season 13 August - September 2024

Tickets: Hangmen | New Theatre

Sydney loves Martin McDonagh. Hangmen is the fourth of his plays that New Theatre has staged, the others being The Beauty Queen of Leenane (my personal favourite), The Pillowman and The Lieutenant of Inishmore. Sydney Theatre Company and Belvoir have staged his work, and most recently we’ve seen The Lonesome West at the Old Fitz. With his famous films In Bruges, Three Billboards Outside of Ebbing Missouri, and The Banshees of Inisherin, we are all well-versed in McDonagh’s signature blackly comic and ironic style, as he shakes authorial head and tuts at human folly and self-delusion. Hangmen is no digression, and we settle in with a comfortable sense of expectation. 

Plotwise this is slightly different to his other plays as it is set around a specific historical moment, namely the abolition of capital punishment in Britain in 1965. The characters, the absurdities, the exposition of human follies, are all classic McDonagh material. The story is more of a traditional thriller/whodunnit and the playwright references that he wanted to have 'old fashioned twists and turns' rather than lecture people. In this case we are waiting for the plot twist and we certainly get it, so look out! 

Hangmen, New Theatre (2024). Photos © Bob Seary

Nathan Farrow as Harry Wade (the second best hangman in England) carries the work with his blustering pigeon-chested newly-redundant hangman, living in the shadow of his more famous colleague Pierrepoint. Kim Clifton as Shirley Wade is the most outstanding of the supporting cast, showing excellent promise in her naturalistic and effortless portrayal of the daughter. Robert Snars is suitably creepy as Mooney, if a little patchy in his style and delivery. While everyone puts their best foot forward, the direction and pacing feel a little slow to render McDonagh’s dialogue so that it crackles and snaps the way it should.   

Set design by Tom Bannerman creates a musty old English pub atmosphere, although the nooses hanging about are bit heavy handed. The screen that can be lit to be transparent or opaque is used to good effect to divide space and action, and lighting design by Timothy M Carter helps with the atmosphere and to focus attention. Costumes by Helen Kohlhagen are deliciously sixties and even their haircuts are awkwardly funny. 

Fans of Martin McDonagh will find plenty of what they love in this production, and if you haven’t experienced his plays or films before it is well worth getting to know him. Just be sure to arm yourself with a good dose of detachment and irony beforehand. 

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Creative Team

Director Deborah Mulhall

Set Designer Tom Bannerman

Lighting Designer Timothy M Carter

Costume Designer Helen Kohlhagen

Sound Designers Mehran Mortezaei, Deborah Mulhall

Assistant Director Timothy M Carter

Dialect Coach Mark G Nagle

Original Music Jim McCrudden

Stage Manager Owen Hirschfeld

ASM Madison Gooley

Operator Ricci Costa

CAST

Alastair Brown, Kim Clifton, Nathan Farrow, Madison Gooley, Owen Hirschfeld, Sonya Kerr, Tom Massey, Jim McCrudden, Jack Elliot Mitchell, Gerry Mullaly, Georgia Nicholas, Reuben Solomon, Robert Snars