Hangmen (play)

Hangmen
Written by	Martin McDonagh
Date premiered	18 September 2015 (2015-09-18)
Place premiered	Royal Court Theatre, London
Original language	English

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.^[1] 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.^[2]

Production history

Hangmen is written by playwright Martin McDonagh.^[3] The play is set primarily in Oldham^[4] during 1965^[5] and centres around the abolition of the death penalty in the United Kingdom.^[6] On 15 July 2015, it was announced by artistic director Vicky Featherstone,^[7] that the play would receive its world premiere as part of the Royal Court Theatre's autumn 2015 season.^[8] It marked McDonagh's first London play since 2003, when The Pillowman debuted at the National Theatre.^[9] The play began previews on 10 September 2015,^[10] with an official opening night on 18 September,^[11] booking for a limited period until 10 October.^[12]

The play is directed by Matthew Dunster, with fight direction by Kate Waters,^[13] design by Anna Fleischle,^[14] lighting design by Joshua Carr^[15] and sound design by Ian Dickinson.^[16] 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,^[17] booking until 5 March 2016.^[18] A typical performance runs two hours and thirty minutes, including one interval.^[11]

Hangmen was published by Faber and Faber on 17 September 2015^[19] and received a National Theatre Live broadcast on 3 March 2016.^[20]

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

Principal roles and original cast

Original 2015 cast of Hangmen

Critical reception

The play has received positive reviews from critics.^{[22][23][24][25][26][27][28]}

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 ^[29] and best design at the Evening Standard Theatre Awards 2015.^[30][31]

Awards and nominations

Royal Court and West End Production

References