Английская Википедия:Hangmen (play)

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Hangmen is a play by the British-Irish playwright Martin McDonagh. It received its world premiere at the Royal Court Theatre, London, in September 2015, before transferring to the West End's Wyndham's Theatre. The play was directed by Matthew Dunster, designed by Anna Fleischle, and featured David Morrissey and Reece Shearsmith among others. It was universally acclaimed by theatre critics, and was nominated for numerous awards including the Olivier Awards, Critics' Circle Theatre Awards and the Evening Standard Theatre Awards. For its U.S. premiere in 2018 at Off-Broadway's Atlantic Theater Company, Hangmen won the New York Drama Critics' Circle Award for Best Foreign Play.

Synopsis

After a 1963 prologue showing British executioner Harry Wade at work, hanging a man, Hennessy, who goes to his grave proclaiming his innocence and pronouncing a curse on Harry, Hangmen flashes forward to 1965 in a town in northern England. The action centres around Harry, who we discover is the second-best hangman in the land. Harry owns a pub that he also lives above with his wife, Alice, and his fifteen-year-old daughter, Shirley. Harry 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 Harry about the abolition. Despite continually protesting that he has nothing to say on the record, Harry eventually takes the journalist upstairs and gives him an extensive interview, complete with disparaging remarks about the number-one hangman in England, named Pierrepont. A smiling but menacing stranger named Mooney comes to the pub and stirs up some trouble, causing consternation among Harry and his cronies. Mooney inquires if there are any rooms about to let, and Alice offers him a room upstairs. But when Alice tries to call his references, Mooney explodes. Mooney also creepily flirts with Harry's daughter, Shirley, who later appears to go missing.

Over the next day or so, Mooney toys with Harry and leads him and his wife to believe that Mooney has kidnapped their daughter, Shirley. We learn that Mooney is in cahoots with Syd, one of the men in the bar and Harry's assistant hangman whom Harry has always treated with contempt. Syd is conspiring with Mooney to take Harry down a peg, but it becomes clear that Mooney may have more on his mind than just scaring Harry. Mooney's taunting eventually pushes Harry and his cronies to put a noose around his neck and stand him on a chair to force him to reveal Shirley's whereabouts. Suddenly, Pierrepont, the best hangman in England, storms into the bar to confront Harry about the disparaging remarks Harry made about Pierrepont in the paper. This forces Harry and his crew to hide the now choking Mooney behind a curtain. When Pierrepont eventually leaves, Harry and company discover Mooney has been hanged behind the curtain, which was apparently Mooney's goal all along. Shirley returns to the bar, completely unharmed. The play ends with Harry and his friends soberly reflecting on what they have done, while Harry is also forced to deal with the justification of the hanging he performed at the very beginning of the play.

Production history

Файл:Hangmen Cast.jpeg

Original 2015 cast of Hangmen

Hangmen is written by playwright Martin McDonagh. The play is set primarily in Oldham during 1965 and centres around the abolition of the death penalty in the United Kingdom. On 15 July 2015, it was announced by artistic director Vicky Featherstone, that the play would receive its world premiere as part of the Royal Court Theatre's autumn 2015 season. It marked McDonagh's first London play since 2003, when The Pillowman debuted at the National Theatre. The play began previews on 10 September 2015, with an official opening night on 18 September, booking for a limited period until 10 October.

The play is directed by Matthew Dunster, with fight direction by Kate Waters, design by Anna Fleischle, lighting design by Joshua Carr and sound design by Ian Dickinson. Following its premiere production the play transferred to the West End's Wyndham's Theatre, where it began previews on 1 December 2015, with its official opening night on 7 December, booking until 5 March 2016. A typical performance ran two hours and thirty minutes, including one interval.

Hangmen was published by Faber and Faber on 17 September 2015 and received a National Theatre Live broadcast on 3 March 2016.

An encore broadcast was shown at selected Vue Cinemas across the UK on 22 March 2016.

The Royal Court production transferred to Off-Broadway at the Atlantic Theater Company in New York from 18 January to 4 March 2018, with original cast members Reece Shearsmith, Sally Rogers and Johnny Flynn returning.

The play was scheduled to open on Broadway at the John Golden Theatre on 19 March 2020, but the run was cancelled because of the COVID-19 pandemic after thirteen previews. In February 2022, it was announced that the play was once again scheduled to premiere at the John Golden Theatre on April 21 of that year, with previews beginning April 8. The production saw most of the 2020 cast return, with the exception of Dan Stevens as Mooney, Mark Addy as Harry and Ewen Bremner as Syd, replaced respectively by Alfie Allen, David Threlfall and Andy Nyman. The production closed on June 18, 2022.

Principal roles and original cast

Character	2015 Royal Court cast	2015-16 West End cast	2018 Off-Broadway cast	2020 Broadway cast	2022 Broadway cast
Harry	David Morrissey		Mark Addy		David Threlfall
Mooney	Johnny Flynn			Dan Stevens	Alfie Allen
Syd	Reece Shearsmith	Andy Nyman	Reece Shearsmith	Ewan Bremner	Andy Nyman
Alice	Sally Rogers			Tracie Bennett
Shirley	Bronwyn James		Gaby French
Clegg	James Dryden		Owen Campbell
Inspector Fry	Ralph Ineson	Craig Parkinson	David Lansbury	Jeremy Crutchley
Bill	Graeme Hawley	Tony Hirst	Richard Hollis
Charlie	Ryan Pope		Billy Carter	Ryan Pope
Arthur	Simon Rouse		John Horton
Pierrepoint	John Hodgkinson		Maxwell Caulfield	John Hodgkinson
Hennessy	Josef Davies		Gilles Geary	Josh Goulding
Guard	Mark Rose		Maxwell Caulfield	Richard Hollis Ryan Pope

Critical reception

The play has received positive reviews from critics.

The show won for best play and best set design at the 2016 Laurence Olivier Awards as well as being nominated in the best director category. It also won best play and best designer at the Critics' Circle Theatre Awards 2015 and best design at the Evening Standard Theatre Awards 2015.

Awards and nominations

Original London production

Year	Award	Category	Nominee	Result	Ref.
2015	Critics' Circle Theatre Award	Best New Play	Martin McDonagh	Шаблон:Won
		Best Designer	Anna Fleischle	Шаблон:Won
	Evening Standard Theatre Award	Best Play	Martin McDonagh	Шаблон:Nom
		Best Designer	Anna Fleischle	Шаблон:Won
2016	Laurence Olivier Award	Best New Play		Шаблон:Won
		Best Director	Matthew Dunster	Шаблон:Nom
		Best Set Design	Anna Fleischle	Шаблон:Won
	South Bank Sky Arts Award	Theatre		Шаблон:Won
	WhatsOnStage Award	Best New Play		Шаблон:Nom
		Best Supporting Actor in a Play	Johnny Flynn	Шаблон:Nom

Original Broadway production

Year	Award	Category	Nominee	Result	Ref.
2022	Drama League Award	Outstanding Production of a Play		Шаблон:Nom
		Outstanding Direction of a Play	Matthew Dunster	Шаблон:Nom
	Theatre World Award		Gaby French	Шаблон:Won
	Tony Awards	Best Play		Шаблон:Nom
		Best Performance by a Leading Actor in a Play	David Threlfall	Шаблон:Nom
		Best Performance by a Featured Actor in a Play	Alfie Allen	Шаблон:Nom
		Best Scenic Design of a Play	Anna Fleischle	Шаблон:Nom
		Best Lighting Design of a Play	Joshua Carr	Шаблон:Nom