A great play: in turns mad, madcap, acerbic, outrageous, and unexpected.
McDonagh’s madcap humor:
Here’s Hennessy (an accused murderer), waiting for the noose, in conversation with Syd (the hangman’s assistant):
Hennessy: ”I’m getting hung by nincompoops!”
Syd: ”You’re getting ‘hanged’ by nincompoops.”
Hennessy: ”I’ve heard all of it now! Correcting me English at a time like this!” (p. 13)
Here’s Harry (a hangman), touting the merits of hanging over other execution methods: ”There are some fellas out there who are bad ‘uns, and if the courts say they’ve got to go they’ve got to go, but if they’ve got to go they’ve got to go by the quickest, most dignified and the least painful way of going as possible. That, in my book, in most normal people’s books, is hanging.” (p. 36)
McDonagh’s acerbic take on casual toxic male sexism:
Clegg (a local journalist): ”There was another woman attacked in the Norfolk last year, out Lowestoft way, the police are saying, bore lot of the hallmarks of the Hennessy killing . . .”
Harry: ”They’ll always be women attacked, lad. It’s just the nature of men, int it? In Lowestoft especially, there’s nowt else to do. You soon get bored of miniature golf!” (p. 40)
And McDonagh’s equally acerbic take on maternal love:
Shirley (Harry’s teenage daughter): ”I don’t mope, Mam!”
Alice (Harry’s wife and Shirley’s mother): ”Boys aren’t interested in mopey girls, or shy girls. Or, if they are, then they’re interested in mopey girls who are drop-dead gorgeous, so they can put the mopey to one side.”
Shirley: ”But I’m pretty on the inside, Mam!”
Alice: ”But you’re not though, love! You’re moody on the inside and mopey on the outside. No boy wants that combo. So think on.”
Shirley: ”Think on, what? A frontal lobotomy?” (p. 43)
And Shirley and Alice’s unexpected discussion of sex:
Shirley: ”It int nowt, is it, mam?”
Alice: “What int nowt, love?”
Shirley: ”Sex and that. I thought it’d be all angels and Elvis but it’s not, is it, it’s just fumbling and sad and then he doesn’t even love ya a half hour after.”
Alice: ”That’s about the size of it, aye.” (pp. 103-4)
Finally, the hangmen reflect on justice:
Harry: ”Well, it were definitely either him or Hennessy, weren’t it? So, y’know, close enough."
Syd: ”Aye, it were more than likely one of them, weren’t it? So . . .”
Harry: ”Aye. Or both of them perhaps. Somehow.”
Syd: ”Or neither.”
Harry: ”Aye, or neither. I suppose that’s just the way it goes, int it? With justice. Ah well. You get arms, I’ll get legs.” (p. 107)