I often have wondered how the artist who created Joe Camel feels about his ubiquitous cartoon, which purportedly pushed thousands of teens into premature death by encouraging them to light up. Martin McDonough takes his exploration of work-related guilt--or lack thereof--and transforms it into a black "comedy." Olivier award for best play and superb reviews for the Broadway production notwithstanding, it made me laugh exactly once, at the expense of poor Scotland where I will be traveling for the first time next month. Despite the impeccable stagecraft behind Hangmen--particularly the extraordinary set which enables the audience to witness (and laugh uproariously at, if their senses of humor are a lot less squeamish than mine) a form of capital punishment that the United Kingdom hasn't seen since 1964--the play is utterly pointless, unless you weren't aware that some people do their jobs better than others. Killing people is a nasty business and so is this play.
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