Sneaky, menacing and funny are descriptions that come up more than once in Martin McDonagh’s Hangmen, but not one of the three words quite does justice to this irresistibly pitch-black comedy, open…
, but not one of the three words quite does justice to this irresistibly pitch-black comedy, opening tonight at the Golden Theatre on Broadway.
Directed with deadly assurance by Matthew Dunster, performed on a remarkably versatile set by a sensational cast,– at least for anyone looking to satisfy a hankering for the delightfully macabre.begins with a brief and riveting prologue: It’s 1963, and the setting is a forlorn, brick-walled prison cell, where a condemned man sits weeping and ignored by two stoic guards. The doomed prisoner is named Hennessy, a name that will haunt all that comes later.
Into their little world come two intruders, the first being a pesky cub reporter looking for a quote from the hangman on the last day of capital punishment, and, more consequentially, an odd and mod young man named Peter Mooney , whose rapid, knowing patter and smug arrogance both startle and intrigue the locals.