Hangmen

A-

After successful runs at the Royal Court and the West End in 2015, Martin McDonagh’s very dark comedy has reached New York in a top-notch production at Atlantic Theater Company. Fortunately, original director Matthew Dunster is back, along with three members of the original cast — Sally Rogers as Harry’s wife Alice, Reece Shearsmith as Harry’s former assistant Syd and the wonderful Johnny Flynn (Young Einstein in “Genius”) as the mysteriously menacing Mooney. Mark Addy ("The Full Monty," "Atlantis") has taken over the role of Harry, Britain’s second-best executioner, and makes it his own. Gaby French nails the role of Harry and Alice’s “mopey” 15-year-old daughter Shirley. The other actors — Owen Campbell (Indian Summer), Billy Carter (Shining City), Maxwell Caulfield (Entertaining Mr. Sloane), Gilles Geary, Richard Hollis (The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time), John Horton and David Lansbury (Anything Goes, Noises Off)—are all Americans, but they fit into the ensemble so seamlessly that I would not have guessed without reading the program. Dialect coach Stephen Gabis did his job well. The play is set in the north of England in the mid-60’s. During the first scene, we see Harry and Syd oversee the execution of a prisoner who emphatically protests his innocence. The rest of the play takes place two years later. Harry has retired and is running a small-town pub. On the day that the abolition of the death penalty takes effect, a reporter (Campbell) arrives and tries to interview Harry. He refuses to talk until the reporter loosens his lips by mentioning his archrival Albert Pierrepoint (a real person, played here by Caulfield) as an alternative source. Mooney, a mysterious stranger who is clearly not a northerner, arrives and expresses his interest in renting a room. Mooney attempts to ingratiate himself, first with Alice and then with Shirley. When Shirley disappears, Mooney is immediately suspected, thanks to information supplied by Syd, whom we at one point see meeting with Mooney in a cafe that suddenly appears above the main set. Gallows humor (appropriately!) grows more prominent in the remarkable scene that comprises most of the second act. There are strong overtones of Orton and Pinter. A running joke addresses the correct usage of ‘hung” and “hanged.” Costume and set designer Anne Fleischle has done much to enhance the production. I could quibble about the haziness of Mooney’s motivation, but it didn’t bother me while I was caught up in the play. While I don’t think McDonagh quite reaches the heights of some of his earlier plays such as The Beauty Queen of Leenane or The Cripple of Inishmaan, he has nevertheless written a play that is entertaining, disturbing and thought-provoking. Running time: 2 hours 20 minutes including intermission.

Indian Summer **

Gregory S. Moss’s new play at Playwrights Horizons has a lot going for it -- three appealing young actors — Owen Campbell, Elise Kibler and Joe Tippett — and a first-rate production with an attractive set design by Dane Laffrey featuring an inviting beach, apt costumes by Kaye Voyce, great lighting by Eric Southern and smooth direction by Carolyn Cantor. There’s a fourth actor, Jonathan Hadary, whom I usually find annoying, but in this case appropriately so, because his character is also annoying. Daniel (Campbell) is an awkward scrawny 16-year-old whose mother has dumped him for an indefinite period on his step-grandfather George (Hadary) a recently widowed eccentric, who lives in a shack in a small Rhode Island beach town. On the beach, Daniel meets Izzy, a scrappy, sexy townie. It is obvious that their initial hostility will soon change. Izzy’s boyfriend Jeremy, 10 years her senior, is a martial arts master who has developed his own private philosophy. Fortunately, Jeremy is played by Tippett (Familiar), who brings humanity to a cartoonish role. As Izzy, the stunningly gorgeous Kibler knows how to hold our attention even as the lines she must spout become increasingly implausible. I wish that the actors had not been forced to struggle with a Rhode Island accent. What starts as a simple summer idyll goes seriously off course in the second act with a bizarre scene between George and Izzy. George’s hijacking of the play’s ending is the final misstep that wiped out my early good feelings. The mostly-subscriber audience, probably relieved at not having to confront anything too edgy, loved it. Running time: 2 hours, 10 minutes.