The Upcoming
  • Culture
    • Art
    • Cinema & Tv
      • Movie reviews
      • Film festivals
      • Shows
    • Food & Drinks
      • News & Features
      • Restaurant & bar reviews
      • Interviews & Recipes
    • Literature
    • Music
      • Live music
    • Theatre
  • Fashion & Lifestyle
    • Accessories
    • Beauty
    • News & Features
    • Shopping & Trends
    • Tips & How-tos
    • Fashion weeks
  • What’s On
    • Art exhibitions
    • Theatre shows
  • Tickets
  • Join us
    • Editorial unit
    • Our writers
    • Join the team
    • Join the mailing list
    • Support us
    • Contact us
  • Interviews
  • Competitions
  • Special events
    • Film festivals
      • Berlin
      • Tribeca
      • Sundance London
      • Cannes
      • Locarno
      • Venice
      • London
      • Toronto
    • Fashion weeks
      • London Fashion Week
      • New York Fashion Week
      • Milan Fashion Week
      • Paris Fashion Week
      • Haute Couture
      • London Fashion Week Men’s
  • Facebook

  • Twitter

  • Instagram

  • YouTube

  • RSS

CultureTheatre

Hangmen at the Royal Court Theatre

Hangmen at the Royal Court Theatre | Theatre review
21 September 2015
Charlie Bury
Avatar
Charlie Bury
21 September 2015

Hangmen is the title of maverick Martin McDonagh’s new play, a story about one semi-retired hangman (Harry), his dissolute pub, and his daughter’s plight with a new stranger (Mooney). Although advertised as a serious drama about the miscarriage of justice, only the ghoulish and glib fate of McDonagh’s right-hand presses against the surface.

The town is Oldham, Greater Manchester, the northern dialect is rife, the rain is thick, and it’s the sultry 60s. The majority of riff-raffing takes place in Harry’s pub (David Morrisey) with droopy locals (Graeme Hawley, Ryan Pope, Simon Rouse) chatting their lives away and a detective (Ralph Ineson), for no apparent reason, listening from across the bar in a depraved manner. The material quickly becomes somewhat stock and sparse as it favours backend ruminations over clear plotting. However, the audience enjoys chortling at the joviality of seeing archetypes put under the grinder of McDonagh’s sacrilegious sensibility. And there are no shortage of jokes spanning Nazism, racism, misogyny, disability, and even frequent doses of ancestral discrimination. The Royal Court is certainly a writer’s theatre.

Matthew Dunster, despite theatrical demands, does manage to realise and convey every beat in the play, often rendering the absurdity of occasional behaviours into alluring attractions. Yet, more often than not, the grandiose gatherings will dwarf any nuanced opportunities. The performances are steady to find their feet, but Johnny Flynn (Mooney) comes out after the interval with a new fuse, not afraid to break the circuits. He sits in a café, under scrutiny, the stage suspended mid-air and framed by a black backdrop. It’s as if cinema took off in the theatre and one is witnessing Michael Fassbender’s long take with the priest in Hunger. The lighting matches, the set-up is similar, and the passage is spellbinding.

Reece Shearsmith is great opposite David Morrisey as his accomplice (Syd) and their chemistry is well called for amidst a crooked ensemble. The staging can seem awkward, or maybe that is the result of an entirely stroppy play. It is a mixed set of tools, to say the least. A wafer biscuit with cheese, the sort of thing McDonagh himself might say.

Is it inspiring? No. Is it emotive? No. Is it entertaining? Yes.

★★★★★

Charlie Bury
Photos: Simon Annand

Hangmen is on at the Royal Court Theatre from 10th September until 10th October 2015, for further information or to book visit here.

Related ItemsHangmenreview

More in Theatre

Typical at Soho Theatre

★★★★★
Ella Satin
Read More

Grimm Tales for Fragile Times and Broken People

★★★★★
Emma-Jane Betts
Read More

Gatsby at Cadogan Hall: An interview with Jodie Steele and Ross William Wild

Michael Higgs
Read More

Living Record Festival: Ain’t No Female Romeo

★★★★★
Brooke Snowe
Read More

West End Musical Drive In Online

★★★★★
James Humphrey
Read More

Hymn at the Almeida Theatre Online

★★★★★
Michael Higgs
Read More

Songs for a New World

★★★★★
Sophia Moss
Read More

Night Tree at Pavilion Dance South West Online

★★★★★
Alexandra Fletcher
Read More

The Color Purple – At Home at Curve Theatre Online

★★★★★
Emma-Jane Betts
Read More
Scroll for more
Tap

Theatre review

Charlie Bury

Hangmen

★★★★★

Dates

10th September - 10th October 2015

Price

£12-£35

Links & directions

WebsiteMap

  • Popular

  • Latest

  • TOP PICKS

  • Smith & Burrows – Only Smith & Burrows Is Good Enough
    ★★★★★
    Album review
  • Creation Stories
    ★★★★★
    Film festivals
  • Detroit Stories – Alice Cooper
    ★★★★★
    Album review
  • Gatsby at Cadogan Hall: An interview with Jodie Steele and Ross William Wild
    Theatre
  • Wrong Turn
    ★★★★★
    Movie review
  • My Wonderful Wanda
    ★★★★★
    Film festivals
  • Foster Boy
    ★★★★★
    Movie review
  • Your Honor
    ★★★★★
    other
  • Maximo Park – Nature Always Wins
    ★★★★★
    Live music
  • The most important inventions of the 21st century
    Tech & Sport
  • My Favourite War
    ★★★★★
    Film festivals
  • Typical at Soho Theatre
    ★★★★★
    Theatre
  • Detroit Stories – Alice Cooper
    ★★★★★
    Album review
  • Minari
    ★★★★★
    Film festivals
  • West End Musical Drive In Online
    ★★★★★
    Theatre
The Upcoming
Pages
  • Contact us
  • Join mailing list
  • Join us
  • Our London food map
  • Our writers
  • Support us
  • What, when, why

Copyright © 2011-2020 FL Media

Apple Music Festival 2015: Ellie Goulding at the Roundhouse | Live review
Lessons in Love | Movie review