NEW YORK — “Surely,” says Martin McDonagh, “when you go home after killing 400 people, something must remain.”
The British playwright and screenwriter isn’t talking about a murderous criminal, but the ramrod-straight men who did the bidding of the British state, hanging convicted criminals all the way up until the abolishment of capital punishment in 1964.
These professional executioners are the subject of the play “Hangmen,” which is up for five Tony Awards on Sunday, including a competitive Best Play nomination for McDonagh (his chief rival is “The Lehman Trilogy,” another U.K. import).
