Hangmen–dark and funny in turn
Hangmen director Sharon Shanks.
“I cannot believe I am laughing at something that two minutes earlier was so dark.”
Director Sharon Shanks describes Centre Stage’s upcoming production ‘Hangmen’ as beautifully written “about such a dark or intense subject, but then the playwright puts intense comedy into it as well.”
Martin McDonagh’s ‘thriller comedy’, as he calls it, explores the morality and ethics of capital punishment through the fictional character of Harry Wade – England’s second best hangman – now reserved to only running a pub, his day job, following the abolition of the death penalty in 1965.
While ‘Hangmen’ is fiction, McDonagh (known for scripting Oscar-winning films ‘Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri’, ‘In Bruges’ and the plays ‘Beauty Queen of Leenane’ and ‘The Cripple of Inishmaan’) is good at taking real life events, as his inspiration and circling a story around them, said Shanks.
The play begins in 1963, in a dingy prison cell, where Harry, played by John Curtis – England’s second-best hangman – is presiding over the execution of a man who maintains his innocence. This chilling prologue is a precursor to the main action, two years later, in Harry’s pub in Oldham, where he now resides as a publican with his wife and mopey teenage daughter (appropriately played by Curtis’ own daughter Teagan).
With capital punishment abolished, Harry is now somewhat adrift, proud of his former role, but grappling with the implications of his life’s work.
Mooney (Chase Tapuke), a mysterious and unnerving young stranger appears in the pub, unsettling both Harry and his customers.
Harry is portrayed as blustery, said Shanks, but kingpin of his little empire.
“He runs this pub full of sort of sycophants and people want to know all the juicy details, which he doesn't ever give them, but he does enjoy the glory of all the attention of his former role.”
However at times he questions the morality of that work.
“The play does mention cases which pushed the movement to abolish hanging, where, people were discovered to be intellectually handicapped... or were innocent, or there were extenuating circumstances.”
And Harry is portrayed as doing due diligence on those about to die – satisfying himself of their guilt, when, said Shanks, you would think “he would just do his job and walk away… So he has that sense of morality. It's an interesting play to define, some call it pitch black comedy.”
A far cry, she said, from the first play she directed ‘A Slice of Saturday Night’, also set in the swinging ‘60s.
“I always think back to it being… a big time of change. But in northern England, it really was quite a depressed, sad time.”
When she first read it, Shanks thought “what a great story, but it had 10 men and two women… I'm in Taupō, I'm not going to be able to get 10 men.”
But a trial read through helped her find the men she needed, assisted by the subject matter.
“If you want to encourage more males into theatre, put on something they really want to actually be in. This is gritty, it's interesting and you can deliver a line easily because it's so well written.”
And they end up in a pub.
The Bayleys season of 'Hangmen' at the Centre Stage Playhouse, Matai Street runs from October 29 to November 8. Tickets at https://www.trybooking.com/nz/ZLY or at the Taupō Visitor and Information Centre, Tongariro Street.