People are still executed for committing crimes in some places in the world, including here. In England, the preferred method for capital punishment was hanging, though it was officially banned in 1965 and effectively ended in 1969.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Before that, though, hanging people apparently took some skill. Harry Wade, the \u201csecond-best hangman in England,\u201d is the focus of Irish playwright Martin McDonagh\u2019s award-winning 2015 dark comedy \u201cHangmen,\u201d at the Long Beach Playhouse through Sept. 26.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
While the play\u2019s characters are fictitious, they are inspired<\/a> by real hangmen of the time and place, and a potential miscarriage of justice that helped lead to the abolition of capital punishment in England. <\/p>\n\n\n\n The play begins in 1963 with Harry hanging a man who proclaims his innocence right to the end and curses Harry for executing him anyway. Flash-forward to 1965 and Harry owns a pub with his wife and teenage daughter in the town of Oldham, where he is locally famous for being such a good hangman. <\/p>\n\n\n\n But the government has just abolished hanging that day, and everyone is eager to hear what Harry has to say about it \u2014 including a creepy stranger in town named Mooney.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n Executive director Madison Mooney \u2014 no relation to the creepy stranger \u2014 said the Playhouse has staged a few of McDonagh\u2019s plays over the years, including \u201cThe Pillowman\u201d and \u201cThe Cripple of Inishmaan<\/a>,\u201d and locals love them. <\/p>\n\n\n\n