PRESS RELEASE
26.01.16
Robert Fox, Matthew Byam Shaw for Playful Productions and Royal Court
Theatre Productions present
The Royal Court Theatre production of
HANGMEN
By Martin McDonagh
Directed by Matthew Dunster
Set and costume design by Anna Fleischle, lighting design by Joshua Carr and sound
design by Ian Dickinson for Autograph.

MARTIN MCDONAGH’S AWARD-WINNING SMASH HIT HANGMEN
RECOUPS IN UNDER SIX WEEKS

WINNER OF BEST NEW PLAY AND BEST DESIGN AT CRITICS CIRCLE
AWARDS 2016

LAST CHANCE TO SEE THE UNIVERSALLY ACCLAIMED PRODUCTION
AT WYNDHAM’S THEATRE IN LONDON’S WEST END, MUST END 5
MARCH 2016
Producers Robert Fox, Matthew Byam Shaw for Playful Productions and Royal
Court Theatre Productions have revealed that Matthew Dunster’s production of
Martin McDonagh’s Hangmen has recouped in under six weeks. The news comes as
the production is announced the winner of the Critic’s Circle ‘Best New Play’ and
‘Best Design’ Awards today. Following a sell out run at the Royal Court Theatre,
Matthew Dunster’s production of Martin McDonagh’s Hangmen transferred to the
West End for a strictly limited season in December and must end on 5 March.
Matthew Byam Shaw, Producer for Playful Productions, said, “No-one expected a
play about public lynchings to go wild at the box office over Christmas, but
Hangmen is so entertaining and unique, the public has decided that this is the new
play to see.”
Lucy Davies, Exec Producer at the Royal Court said, “We programmed this play at
the Royal Court in May, opened it to sold out houses in September, it transferred
by Christmas, and has recouped by January. This has been a textbook example of
how incredibly fruitful, confident and nimble the collaboration between
subsidised theatres, commercial producers and theatre owners can be. It has been
a very happy project, and we are delighted that audiences have embraced its
brilliance, and its extraordinary craft.”
After a decade-long absence from the London stage, McDonagh returned to the
Royal Court Theatre with Hangmen in September 2015 to critical and public
acclaim. The full West End cast includes: Josef Davies, James Dryden, Johnny
Flynn, Tony Hirst, John Hodgkinson, Bronwyn James, David Morrissey, Andy
Nyman, Craig Parkinson, Ryan Pope, Sally Rogers, Mark Rose and Simon Rouse.
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?
Amongst 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.
The transfer of Hangmen is produced by Robert Fox, Matthew Byam Shaw for
Playful Productions and Royal Court Theatre Productions.
-ENDSFor further information please contact Maisie Lawrence at The Corner Shop PR –
020 7831 7657 / Maisie@thecornershoppr.com
Images can be downloaded here with the below details
Username: Hangmen
Password: Wyndham’s
LISTINGS INFORMATION
Robert Fox, Matthew Byam Shaw for Playful Productions, and Royal Court Theatre
Productions present
The Royal Court Theatre production of
HANGMEN
by Martin McDonagh
Directed by Matthew Dunster
Wyndham’s Theatre, Charing Cross Rd, London WC2H 0DA
Until Saturday 5 March 2016
Final performance: Saturday 5 March
Performance times: Monday – Saturday at 7.30pm (except Wednesday 3 March at 7pm)
Wednesday and Saturday matinees at 2.30pm.
Running time: 2 hours 30 minutes including interval
Tickets from £19.50
Book online: www.hangmentheplay.com
Phone: 0844 482 51204
Groups: 0844 482 51004
Schools: 0844 482 5165
Access: 0844 482 5137
Book online www.royalcourttheatre.com
Phone: 020 7565 5000
Or in person at the box office (Royal Court Theatre, Sloane Square, SW1W 8AS)
No booking fees when booked directly with the theatre, www.delfontmackintosh.co.uk,
www.hangmentheplay.com and via the Royal Court Box Office.
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A limited number of £19.50 Day Seats will be released in person at Wyndham's Theatre Box
Office from 10am for that day’s performances.
NOTES TO EDITORS
About Robert Fox
London theatre credits include: Goosepimples, Anyone for Denis? Another Country,
Orphans, Interpreters, J J Farr, Chess, Lettice and Lovage, The Seagull, Torch Song Trilogy,
Mad House in Goa, Burn This, The Ride down Mount Morgan, Skylight, Amy’s View, Vita and
Virginia, Anything Goes, Me and Mamie O’Rourke, The Weekend, Who’s Afraid of Virginia
Woolf, A Delicate Balance, The Caretaker, The Importance of Being Earnest, Three Tall
Women, The Lady in the Van, Burning Blue, When She Danced, Closer, Masterclass, Vincent
in Brixton, The Breath of Life, Hedda Gabler, Frost/Nixon, The Lady from Dubuque, The
Harder They Come, South Downs/The Browning Version, The Judas Kiss, The Audience,
Stephen Ward, Fatal Attraction and Skylight.
New York theatre credits include: Lettice and Lovage, Chess, Skylight, Amy’s View, Vita and
Virginia, Closer, The Blue Room, The Big Love, Gypsy, The Boy from Oz, Salome, The
Pillowman, The Vertical Hour, Frost/Nixon, Exit The King, God of Carnage, A Behanding in
Spokane, Hugh Jackman Back On Broadway, The Audience and Skylight.
Australia theatre credits include: The Boy from Oz, Talking Heads and The Boy from Oz
Arena Tour.
Films include: Another Country, A Month by the Lake, Iris, The Hours, Closer, Notes on a
Scandal and Atonement.
Television includes: The Crown (Netflix).
About Matthew Byam Shaw for Playful Productions
Matthew Byam Shaw, Nia Janis and Nick Salmon founded Playful Productions over five years
ago.
As Producer and General Manager productions include: Mack & Mabel (UK and Ireland tour),
American Buffalo (Wyndham’s Theatre), The Audience (Gerald Schoenfeld Theatre Broadway, Apollo Theatre and Gielgud Theatre, which was also a record-breaking,
worldwide digital broadcast with NT Live), Wolf Hall: Parts 1 & 2 (Winter Garden Theatre Broadway), Wolf Hall and Bring Up The Bodies (Aldwych Theatre), Shrek The Musical (UK &
Ireland tour), The Weir (Wyndham’s Theatre), South Downs/The Browning Version (Harold
Pinter Theatre), Sweeney Todd (Adelphi Theatre), Flare Path (Theatre Royal Haymarket),
Yes, Prime Minister (Gielgud Theatre, Apollo Theatre, Trafalgar Studios and three UK tours),
Krapp’s Last Tape (Duchess Theatre), Red (Golden Gate Theatre - Broadway) and Enron
(Noël Coward Theatre).
As General Manager productions include: Kinky Boots (Aldelphi Theatre), Blithe Spirit
(Gielgud Theatre), Charlie and the Chocolate Factory (Theatre Royal, Drury Lane), Wicked
(Apollo Victoria Theatre, UK and Ireland tour), Dirty Dancing (Aldwych Theatre, two UK
tours and Piccadilly Theatre), Shrek The Musical (Theatre Royal, Drury Lane), Million Dollar
Quartet (Noël Coward Theatre) and Clybourne Park (Wyndham’s Theatre).
Prior to Playful, productions include: Mary Stuart (Apollo Theatre and Broadhurst Theatre,
Broadway), Legally Blonde The Musical (Savoy Theatre), Hamlet (Broadhurst Theatre,
Broadway), Spring Awakening (Lyric, Hammersmith and Novello Theatre), Don Carlos
(Gielgud Theatre), A Midsummer Night’s Dream (Roundhouse, UK tour, US tour and Australia
tour), Sinatra at the London Palladium (London Palladium and UK tour), Humble Boy
(Gielgud Theatre, UK tour and MTC), Anything Goes (Theatre Royal, Drury Lane), Boeing-
Boeing (Comedy Theatre, UK tour and Longacre Theatre, Broadway) and Frost/Nixon
(Gielgud Theatre and Bernard B. Jacobs Theatre, Broadway).
Television includes: The Crown (Netflix).
About the Royal Court Theatre
The Royal Court Theatre is the writers’ theatre. It is a leading force in world theatre,
finding writers and producing new plays that are original and contemporary. The Royal
Court strives to be at the centre of civic, political, domestic and international life, giving
writers a home to tackle big ideas and world events and tell great stories.
The Royal Court commissions and develops an extraordinary quantity of new work reading
over 3000 scripts a year and annually producing around 14 world or UK premieres in its two
auditoria at Sloane Square in London. Over 200,000 people visit the Royal Court each year
and many thousands more see our work elsewhere through transfers to the West End and
New York, national and international tours, residencies across London and site-specific
work, including recent projects in Peckham, Pimlico and Tottenham.
The Royal Court’s extensive development activity encompasses a diverse range of writers
and artists and includes an ongoing programme of writers’ attachments, readings,
workshops, and playwriting groups. Twenty years of pioneering work around the world
means the Royal Court has relationships with writers on every continent.
The Royal Court opens its doors to radical thinking and provocative discussion, and to the
unheard voices and free thinkers that, through their writing, change our way of seeing.
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