In his small pub in Oldham, Harry is something of a local celebrity. But what’s the second-best hangman in England to do on the day they’ve abolished hanging? Among the cub reporters and sycophantic pub regulars, dying to hear Harry’s reaction to the news, a peculiar stranger lurks, with a very different motive for his visit. Taking the abolition of hanging in Britain in 1965 as a jumping-off point, this edgy and thought-provoking black comedy, from the author of The Pillowman and The Lieutenant of Inishmore, premiered at the Royal Court Theatre in London in September 2015.

First, let me say I believe I was lucky to see the full cast of this play, as I understand you had Covid issues which affected the early part of the run. Having had a recent show of mine cancelled twice and nearly a third time due to Covid, I can sympathise with you, and it was great that you managed to keep the show on the road.

The production, directed by John Cook and assisted by Kizzie Hopkinson, was one of the best productions I have reviewed at the Barn, or indeed seen anywhere else in recent years. The directors clearly understood the necessity of mastering both the comedic and the darker elements of the piece and these two were balanced to perfection. The production was a secure and impressive ensemble piece and in terms of overall casting, it’s a credit to you that you were able to find such strength and depth in a cast requiring ten men and two women. One solution was Charlie being played by a woman, and this worked well. Stage groupings were always good and those characters with something important to say always took up a dominant position on the stage. The pace of this production was totally appropriate, and once into the second act it steam-rollered unrelentingly towards the final tragic conclusion. But there was shape to it too – as demonstrated by the lovely slower Scene Four between Shirley and her mother. Overall this production didn’t loosen its grip from start to finish.

One of the main challenges for a production of this play is that, while the action is largely set in a large old-fashioned northern pub, the play also requires a scene in a café, a prison cell in 1963, and also an interview that takes place away from the bar of the pub. The design concept of this production was well thought out and had a very strong overall impact. The opening prison set had solid looking walls painted in familiar two-tone, which seamlessly folded away to reveal the pub behind. The café was similarly achieved by simply folding out a section of wall, and the interview took place in front of a screen with the pub in darkness behind. All these were simple but very effective solutions to the multiple locations required.

In terms of the main setting, the pub itself, I thought this was an extremely convincing set. Using the full depth of the stage allowed you to create an area that never felt cluttered. Set dressing by Kris Moore and Peter Moore, and properties by Sheila Grimmant, gave a wonderfully authentic feel to the pub: the awful nicotine-brown wallpaper and furnishings all helped to indicate place and period with great immediacy. The bar area was suitably dressed with optics and at least one working pump and an authentic-looking till. Other scenes, such as the café, were well dressed too – for example, the lovely tomato-shaped sauce bottle.

My only comment about the pub is that the bar itself was very flat to the wall, so from my seat in the raised section of the auditorium characters behind the bar were always masked by pumps, and sometimes by an actor sitting at the end of the bar. I thought that anybody sitting at the lower front of the auditorium would have a worse view than me, and given the size of the central area you had, I think you could have cheated the bar on a bit of an angle to allow characters to be staggered rather than three in a line. This play contains many long monologues and during these one is frequently trying to look at the reactions of other characters, which is why I noticed I couldn’t see some of these reactions.

I must give credit to you for accomplishing the hanging in the pub so successfully. This is another of the key challenges of the play, and because I knew it was coming I was looking to work out how you did it – and I couldn’t, so well done to those who planned it and to the actors involved in pulling it off so convincingly on the night.

Costumes by Yvonne Bartlett, Margaret Wallace, Sue Talbot, Louise Wallace, Anne-Marie Austin and Anne Mawer were all appropriate and ranged from the uniformed prison staff through to the bow-tied Harry and the well turned out and particular Pierrepoint. Thought had clearly been given to establishing all the characters through costume, and not just the main characters: for example, Clegg and Inspector Fry both had believable costumes which helped to give credibility to their professions.

Lighting designed by Trevor Wallace and operated by John Cude aided this production immensely, both in establishing mood and tone, but also in getting you out of another of the challenges: in the first scene, the script calls for Hennessy to be hanged, and this was cleverly achieved offstage by creating a shadow on the prison wall. Even though the prison was a short scene, great thought had gone in to lighting this: with ‘bars’ to create a window effect, and a clever touch was to darken the scene when a hood was put on Hennessy. The pub was well-lit through various states: there was a lovely morning feel to Scene Four and then the lighting got darker as we got to the rain and lightning in the second act, mirroring the tone of the play. The practical lights in the pub were effective too and all these elements served to create a strong impact.

Sound by Rob Wallace was great bassy atonal music which helped create mood and atmosphere between the scenes. There were also great sound effects as part of the action, such as the authentic background radio effect in Scene Four and the rain and thunder in Act II.

In terms of performances, Tallan Cameron was convincing as Hennessy, the ‘innocent man’ who’s hanged in the opening scene, and other members of the cast, along with John Keogh and Nick Jackson made up the prison staff. It was a clever touch to have the condemned man agitating on his bed as the audience came in and this all contributed to make this chilling opening scene. Syd, played by Paul Russell, was great in this scene and helped set the tone with matter-of-fact comic banter about the semantics of whether Hennessy has just been ‘hung’ or ‘hanged’! Syd also appears in later scenes and this was a good portrayal of the man caught between betraying Mooney by his desire to bring Wade down a peg or two.

In the pub scenes, John Keogh, Barry Grossman and Siobhán Hill Elam played the regulars Arthur, Bill and Charlie. There was good light relief comedy provided by these the actors, including from the deafness of John Keogh’s Arthur and others putting their foot in it or silently watching as the action unfolds. These three were onstage for long periods and remained focused and in character throughout. Steve Hartill had good characterisation as the fresh-faced press reporter Clegg, and Ian Colpitts gave a convincing performance as Inspector Fry. Pierrepoint, Wade’s nemesis, is a cameo role which is nicely set up as everyone has been talking him up (or down) throughout the production, and he finally arrives on page 94. Pete Dawson was wonderfully confident and bristly as Britain’s number one hangman, upstaging and upsetting Harry in his own backyard: the ‘Smell my hair’ section was fantastic.

The central family unit of the play were three outstanding performances: the characterisation of these three was totally secure. Roly Taylor was highly impressive as Harry Wade, the man who’s lived in Pierrepoint’s shadow all his life, which has turned him into a belligerent bully. This was an engaging performance which offered clear differences in his relationship with his family, his regulars and his old colleagues, Pierrepoint and Syd. He was wonderfully vain and thick-skinned throughout, and his vicious treatment of Mooney was the culmination of this performance. As Alice, his long-suffering wife, Emily Fairman offered a full range of character and emotions from the confidence in dealing with characters such as Mooney to displaying her vulnerability over Shirley’s disappearance. This was a part played with sensitivity and flair. As the 15-year-old Shirley Wade, Alice Croot gave an absolutely fantastic portrayal of a ‘moody’ (sorry, ‘shy’) teenager. The scenes with her mother and Mooney were highly convincing and the command of the final speech where she so clearly wants to be treated like an adult, but still displays the naivety of a child, was fantastic and created great empathy with me. This was an extremely impressive performance, and all three performers were highly watchable. There was great support between them all, as well as thorough engagement with the audience throughout.

Michael Curry played Mooney, the central villain – an incredibly difficult part. Mooney needs to be believably unbelievable, and he was because you’re never quite sure of his motives: when he’s lying to other characters – for example when he tells Syd he’s abducted Shirley – it was perfectly believable to Syd and us, so it was a shock when she emerged unhurt at the very end. We also got some wonderful flashes of menace in that café scene. Mooney, a southern charmer with a talent for menace, has some very long monologues and these were all handled well and with variation and pace so they didn’t drag. Just occasionally, with the nasal tone adopted, there was a slight drift into caricature, but this was a good and secure performance.

In summary, this was a fantastic production: communication with the audience was highly successful which led to a really dramatic impact. There are many staging challenges as I’ve mentioned, all of which were overcome, but the biggest challenge was to have a direction team who ‘got’ this dark comedy about vengeance, and who brought out the twists, the violence and the laughs in the play – and an acting and technical team to deliver on it. All these elements worked extremely well together, and you are all to be congratulated on what was a funny, thought-provoking and engaging play.