The lead cast has been announced for Hangmen, Martin McDonagh’s new play at the Royal Court in London, with Reece Shearsmith and David Morrissey at the top of the bill.
The play is McDonagh’s first in a decade, following a brace of successful films: In Bruges and Seven Psychopaths. Opening on 10 September, it follows an executioner on the day that Britain announces the abolition of the death penalty. The Royal Court’s artistic director Vicky Featherstone has described it as “dark and surreal and shocking and challenging”.
Shearsmith, known for The League of Gentlemen among many other film and TV roles, is no stranger to the London stage, having appeared in As You Like It, The Producers, and Alan Ayckbourn’s Absent Friends in recent years. Most recently he appeared in the Grease musical sequel Cool Rider.
Morrissey, meanwhile, began his career with stints at the Royal Shakespeare Company and the National Theatre, later peppering his film work with runs in the likes of Neil LaBute’s In a Dark Dark House, Richard Greenberg’s Three Days of Rain, and a 2011 production of Macbeth at the Everyman theatre.
Joining them for the Court’s winter season is Kim Cattrell – the Sex and the City star is to take the lead in Linda, a new play from Penelope Skinner about a woman going through a mid-life crisis. It begins on 25 November at the Jerwood Theatre Downstairs.
