Future Plays

HARRY WADE (M) – Playing age: 45-65  (Lancashire Accent)

The central character and former Chief Executioner of England, Harry is a larger-than-life, charismatic and self-important man who has built his identity around his reputation as a professional hangman. He is confident, opinionated and used to being the most important man in the room but beneath the bluster is a man who is deeply insecure about his legacy and his place in a changing world.

We are looking for an actor with strong stage presence, excellent comic timing and the ability to command an audience. Harry needs warmth and charm alongside arrogance, vanity and flashes of cruelty. The actor must be able to move effortlessly between broad comedy and much darker, more vulnerable moments, allowing us to see the human being behind the public persona. A substantial, demanding role for an actor who enjoys playing contradiction: funny and frightening, charming and cruel, powerful and ultimately very fragile.

PETER MOONEY (M) – 30s–40s  (London Accent)

A mysterious stranger who walks into Harry Wade’s pub and immediately unsettles the established order. Mooney is charming, intelligent, confident and disarmingly funny, but there is something distinctly unsettling beneath the surface. He is an outsider who seems to know far more about Harry and the pub than he should, and he takes an almost mischievous pleasure in probing the weaknesses of the people around him.

We are looking for an actor with strong charisma, excellent comic timing and a natural ability to hold an audience’s attention. Mooney needs to be likeable enough that we are drawn towards him, but unpredictable enough that we never quite trust him. The actor should be comfortable with ambiguity, stillness and sudden shifts in tone, with a darker intensity underneath the humour. A fascinating, unpredictable role for an actor who can make the audience laugh one moment and feel distinctly uncomfortable the next.

ALICE (F) – Playing age:  45-60 (Lancashire Accent)

Alice is the wife of Harry Wade. She is a strong, assertive woman who is more than capable of holding her own in a room full of men. There is warmth and vulnerability beneath her toughness, alongside a sense of frustration with the limitations of her life and marriage.

Alice has a dry wit, emotional intelligence and a quietly flirtatious quality. She should be able to move effortlessly between McDonagh’s dark comedy and the more vulnerable moments beneath it. Her relationship with Harry is complicated: she knows him intimately, challenges him, and is not afraid to give as good as she gets.

SHIRLEY (F) –  Playing age: 15 / Actor must be 17+ (Lancashire Accent)

Harry and Alice Wade’s 15-year-old daughter. She is a spirited, lively and inquisitive teenager, growing up in her parents’ pub in 1960s Oldham. She has youthful confidence and curiosity, but is also still naïve in many ways as she begins to experience the wider world around her. Her parents think she’s just a mopey teenager.  A naturalistic performer with strong comic timing and the ability to bring warmth, vulnerability and teenage energy to the role is required.

SYD (M)  – Playing age: 40+ (Lancashire Accent)

Harry Wade’s long-serving, slightly pathetic and nervous former assistant.  Feels like comic relief in the play but becomes surprisingly important to the machinery of the plot.  Syd has a mixture of resentment, insecurity, slyness and genuine menace. He works better if he is NOT played for comedy. First seen working with Harry during Hennessy execution in 1963, 2 years on he is no longer working for Harry but there is considerable bitterness. Desperately seeking respect from those who fundamentally do not respect him, he has a stutter when under pressure and is more crafty and cunning than you’d initially expect. There is a nasty master servant quality between Harry and him.

BILL, CHARLIE & ARTHUR  (M)- Playing Age: 50s–70s (Lancashire Accent)

Harry’s regular pub cronies and a familiar presence in the local community. These three working-class Oldham men bring much of the play’s dark, irreverent humour, with their banter, opinions and observations providing a lively backdrop to the action. The roles require strong character actors with excellent comic timing, naturalistic delivery and a good ear for the rhythms of Northern speech. The three should feel like genuine old friends who know the pub, Harry and each other inside out. We are looking for performers who can create distinctive, believable personalities while working well as a comic ensemble.

DEREK CLEGG (M) — Playing Age: 20s–30s  (Lancashire Accent)

Derek Clegg is a young local newspaper reporter, eager to make his mark and keen to get a good story. He is enthusiastic, inquisitive and perhaps a little too eager to impress, bringing a youthful energy into the pub. Clegg is an essentially ordinary, likeable character who finds himself caught up in events far beyond his experience. The role requires a confident naturalistic actor with strong comic timing, an ability to handle McDonagh’s fast-paced dialogue and a good sense of character.

INSPECTOR FRY (M) – Playing Age: 35+  (Lancashire Accent)

Inspector Fry is a local police inspector who arrives at Harry’s pub in the aftermath of the hanging, bringing an air of authority and officialdom into the increasingly chaotic world of the pub. He is professional, measured and accustomed to being in control, but McDonagh’s dark humour allows plenty of opportunity for the character’s dry comic qualities to emerge. The role requires a confident character actor with strong naturalistic instincts, excellent timing and the ability to play both the authority and absurdity of the situation.

ALBERT PIERREPOINT (M) – Playing Age: 50s–60s  (Yorkshire Accent)

Albert Pierrepoint is Britain’s most famous hangman and a highly respected professional within his world. When he arrives at Harry’s pub, he brings with him an air of authority, confidence and celebrity, as well as a very different perspective on the profession of hanging. Pierrepoint is charming, self-assured and quietly commanding, with a dry wit and an ability to hold an audience’s attention. (Pierrepoint appears in the final scene so will double for either a guard, doctor or governor in Scene 1)

 JAMES HENNESSY (M) – Playing age: 30-50  (London Accent)

A quietly powerful, unsettling presence. Hennessy is Harry Wade’s final condemned man and carries the weight of a man who has been through the machinery of the justice system and has survived it. I am looking for an actor who can convey toughness without becoming stereotypical, vulnerability without sentimentality, and menace without forcing it. Hennessy should have a natural, grounded physicality and an ability to hold an audience’s attention even in silence. The actor needs strong comic timing, emotional intelligence and the confidence to allow the darker material to sit underneath the humour.  Will double with another character if actor wants more to do as Hennessy appears in opening scene only.

Note: Roles of Prison Guard / Governor/ Doctor etc will be played by the company and/or crew – or for anyone looking for a very small part.