The Gamm Theatre stages Hangmen, a deliciously dark comedy-mystery by award-winning playwright and filmmaker Martin McDonagh. Gamm Artistic Director Tony Estrella directs the deliciously dark tale of capital punishment as only McDonagh can pen it.
A fictional story set in northern England during the actual final days of hanging in the U.K., Hangmen boasts a cast of uproarious and unforgettable characters. Steve Kidd (Sweat, Ironbound) plays hangman and pub owner Harry Wade, whose profession has just been made illegal and whose regulars want to know what the country’s “second-best hangman in the country” will do next. Among the pub’s revolving visitors are a young reporter (Gamm newcomer David Ensor) eager for a scoop, Harry’s guilt-ridden former assistant, Syd (Gabriel Graetz, Assassins, Gloria), and a mysterious, swaggering stranger named Mooney (John Hardin, Bad Jews), all lurking with very different motives.
British-Irish playwright turned filmmaker McDonagh (The Banshees of Inisherin; Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri), is known for his absurdist black humor as staged to critical and popular acclaim at The Gamm over many seasons (The Lonesome West, The Pillowman, The Beauty Queen of Leenane, A Skull in Connemara). Hangmen, winner of the Olivier Award for Best New Play, rode its West End success to the U.S. in 2018, making its Off-Broadway U.S. premiere at the Atlantic Theatre Company (New York Drama Critics’ Circle Award for Best Foreign Play). A 13-show Broadway followed but was cut short by the global pandemic. It resumed with a limited 10-week run in 2022.
Estrella said he feels privileged to bring McDonagh’s play to New England audiences.
"This is our fifth production of Martin McDonagh's work since 2007. That makes him second only to Shakespeare here at The Gamm,” Estrella said. “No playwright in the last 25 years has brought more thrills and sheer, shocking joy to audiences around the world. I was fortunate to see both the London and New York premieres of this staggering work and I am so excited to bring this masterpiece to The Gamm."
Tickets: 401-723-4266 or gammtheatre.org/hangmen