Broadway review of ‘Hangmen’: ‘Game of Thrones’ star Alfie Allen kills with Martin McDonagh’s Gallows humor

Insidious, dangerous and funny are the descriptions often found in Martin McDonagh hangersBut none of the three words justify this stunning black comedy opening tonight at the Broadway Golden Theater.

Again, justice has very little to do with what happens in this delightfully evil tale of bloody decency and revenge, whether state sanctioned or not. The action takes place mainly in the Lancashire Pub in the last days of the Olivier Award-winning England court execution of the mid-1960s. hangers It restores not only the period of British history, but also the playwright’s early passion for very dark impulses (cf. Bent Beauty Queen, Inishmore’s lieutenant, Pillow Man).

And no one creates dark impulses with as many comic lightning bolts – yes, it’s insidious, scary, and fun – like full-blown McDonagh.

Directed by Matthew Dunster in the guise of death, played on an extraordinarily versatile stage by a sensational actor, hangers A perfect match would be Tracey Lets Წ anything – Anyway, for those looking for an incredible macabre desire.

With the outstanding performance of Alfie Allen – Dangerous game of Thrones Character Theon “Rick” Grayjoy here) hangers It begins with a short and gripping prologue: it’s 1963, and the setting is a desolate brick-lined prison cell in which a condemned man sits and cries and is ignored by two stoic guards. The convicted prisoner is called Hennessy, the name (and Josh Golding’s play) that will follow everything that happens next.

Convincing her innocence to the last, Hennessy finds herself in the swift and final demise at the hands of Harry Wade (David Trellfol), one of the newcomers. hangers Your title. As soon as Hennessy disappears (in Anna Flaishle’s expressive glass case, which closes in minutes as the entire cell disappears from view), two years later we move to a nicely decorated pub in the north of England. When the abolition of the death penalty will remove Ol’har from the position that gives him national pride and fame.

At first glance, Harry’s wife’s pub, owned by Alice (Tracy Bennett), dominates and criticizes the regular population, receiving the worst attention from a national celebrity as Harry hates any new pop star. Alice drinks too much gin, Shirley (Gaby French) is a 15-year-old girl, all agree, soft and simple (and adds mom, not pretty on the inside) and barfel or obscenely wet (Richard Hollis, Ryan). Pope), soda (John Horton) or, in the case of a local police inspector who spends more time in a pub than a police station, reasoned soda.

They enter a small world with two invaders, the first being the despicable Bell Reporter (Owen Campbell) who is looking for a date with a thief on the last day of his execution and, furthermore, a strange and elegant young man named Peter Moon. (Allen). ). ), whose quick, wise, talented and accommodating arrogance amazes and intrigues the locals.

Mooney is shy if the unstable behavior indicates he’s not good, but we can’t be completely shocked, or whatever we think the complete shock is, until Harry’s old accomplice shows up at the pub. Said (Andy Naiman), nervous, confused with a criminal past, nervous, confused with a criminal past, confides in Harry that a strange and confused young man is asking questions about the Hennessy case and knows more. Victims younger than possible. Harry thinks, asks Sid that they may have executed the wrong person.

And where exactly did Shirley go?

Most of it is about understanding what happens after a break, when hangers This is one of Harry’s unfortunate cases: 233, more precisely, the number that puts pompous Harry in second place in a long-standing rivalry with England’s chief shipper, Albert Pierpoint, a rivalry that has left Harry heartbroken. for decades. hangers With a lot of comic sand. Here, Harry pays tribute to Albert’s over 600 races:

I’m just saying the Nazis did the drilling, all those rascals ran to the fields and what not, I leaned on him. Good tone on a lot of them, pigs. I’m just saying don’t let him go to his final bill. Going out with the Germans en masse is a tall order, right? They do what they say, no, they follow orders. “Stay there, under that noose.” “Okay, Sergeant Pierpoint, what else can I do for you?”

At the highest level of production, hangers Enjoy Joshua Door’s lighting design well (the fluorescent tubes of the prison cells flicker, the flies on the windows can have a killer flickering glow) and Ian Dickinson’s sound design, turn up the volume for a second and terribly scared. Quiet Next – and provides pretty hideous answers to surf guitar music that borders every scene to place us in the swing era of the Cray brothers and the Moor murder.

Also pay attention to the design of the flysch suit, as clever as its decorations (if not as flashy as space flight on stage, where there is more than just a vanished prison cell). Mooney’s attire – a brown blazer and dark pants, a white shirt and a skinny tie – makes a sly appeal to the hissing sociopath from the 1968 cult British horror film remembered: Unless I repeat Bernard Herman’s sister. Theme since 1968 twisted nerve You may not be paying enough attention when kill Billy OR American horror story They were honored with love.

Just like the definition of the character is ridiculously formal attire. Fun formal wear is a honey-tied, well-fed, mustachioed and utterly conceited Harry (Trellie, who returns to Broadway after a 25-year absence, is welcome to return, but everyone is welcome to do so.

With a confident eye for laughter and hustle and bustle in the world of McDonagh, Principal Dunster and his cast live with absolute certainty in this small part of the world, conveying greater meaning, safely, Harry’s firm belief in crime. , in righteousness and unshakable truth. His life works are not isolated from mere individual personal quirks, keeping the seemingly safe little cocoon in which everyone knows his name, if not his secrets.