Martin McDonagh has built a career out of putting very serious subjects in very funny plays.
His trademark combination of violence, grief, cruelty and absurdity comes to the Long Beach Playhouse with “Hangmen,” McDonagh’s 2015 play about capital punishment, professional pride and a strange night at a British pub.
The production, directed by Carl DaSilva, runs from Saturday, Aug. 29, to Sept. 26 in the Playhouse’s Studio Theater, 5021 E. Anaheim St.
McDonagh is perhaps best known to a broader audience through his films, including “In Bruges” and “Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri,” but his roots are in theater.
His breakthrough came in the 1990s with a series of sharp, unusual plays set in and around the west of Ireland, including “The Beauty Queen of Leenane,” “The Lonesome West” and “The Lieutenant of Inishmore.”
Then, his stunning 2003 play “The Pillowman” won the New York Drama Critics’ Circle Award for Best Foreign Play, and “Hangmen” itself was nominated for the Tony Award for Best Play.
So “Hangmen” arrives at Long Beach Playhouse with a pretty recognizable McDonagh pedigree behind it — and a premise that fits comfortably within his particular theatrical universe.
The play is set in 1965, immediately after Britain abolishes hanging. Harry, a former executioner and something of a local celebrity, runs a pub in Oldham. He has spent years being known as England’s second-best hangman, but the end of capital punishment leaves him with an unusual combination of professional irrelevance and a lingering desire for recognition.
When a stranger named Mooney arrives, what initially looks like a darkly comic portrait of an obsolete profession gradually develops into a very tense drama.
That tonal balancing act is part of what distinguishes McDonagh’s work from other playwrights.
The Long Beach Playhouse production stars Noah Wagner as Harry, Trevor Hart as Mooney and Amanda Karr as Alice, Harry’s wife.
The cast also includes Dina Hagler, Karl Schott, Floyd Harden, Ari Hagler, James Rice, Allen Sewell, Kolby King and James Matthis.
The production is part of the Playhouse’s 2026 Studio season, with the smaller theater providing a more intimate setting for McDonagh’s claustrophobic combination of comedy and suspense.
A preview performance will take place at 8 p.m. Friday, Aug. 28, followed by opening night and a champagne gala at 8 p.m. Saturday.
Regular performances will continue at 8 p.m. Fridays and Saturdays, and 2 p.m. Sundays.
For more information, go to lbplayhouse.org/event/hangmen.
Honoring Rod Briggs
What happens when vastly different artists are tasked with interpreting one Long Beach legend?
At the Rod Briggs Gallery this fall, the answer will come in 40 different works of art.
“Reinterpreting Rod: Artists Create New Works Inspired by Rod Briggs’s Paintings,” presented by the Long Beach Creative Group, brings together 20 Long Beach-area artists for an exhibition built around the work of the late Long Beach artist Rod Briggs (1927-2017).
The show opened Aug. 15 and will run to Sept. 19 at the Rod Briggs Gallery, 2221 E. Broadway.
The concept is straightforward but potentially full of surprises: 10 original Briggs paintings will be displayed alongside two contemporary reinterpretations of each.
The exhibition was conceived and curated by artist Cory Bilicko, who assembled a group that includes established professionals and emerging artists.
“I’ve intentionally assembled a diverse group of artists representing a wide range of ages, backgrounds and levels of experience,” Bilicko said in a press release. “It includes established professional artists alongside emerging creators, two of whom are exhibiting publicly for the first time.”
Each participating artist will bring their own experiences, aesthetics and questions to the source material.
“Giving contemporary artists a chance to put their spin on existing works will create a conversation that hopefully will extend beyond the opening night,” participating artist Jeff McMillan said. “I always liked the idea that a reaction, good or bad, is better than no reaction at all. At least there’s dialogue.”
This dialogue can transform seemingly ordinary subject matter. For instance, artist David Early drew inspiration from one of Briggs’ paintings depicting garments hanging from a clothesline. His reinterpretation considers the stories and relationships that might exist beneath an everyday scene.
Indeed, the exhibition offers a chance to witness the craft of Long Beach’s contemporary art community as a whole.
Participating artists include Tracy Allen, Tony Barrera, Cory Bilicko, Aria Bradfield, James Brooks, Kadie DiCarlo, David Early, Susan Hawkins, Nate Jones, Anna Katrina, Calvin Konen, Jeff McMillan, Jacqueline Nguyen, Vince Ruez-Abdo, Jamie Russom, Julio Salgado, Morgan Stahlkuppe, Emily Tanaka, Bernard Vyzga and Ivan Zuno.
The gallery will also host a free screening of the documentary “A Bigger Picture” at 7:30 p.m. Friday.
The film follows celebrated artist David Hockney as he leaves California and returns to his home in Northern England.
Considered together, the exhibition and the free screening make for a fitting showcase for the Rod Briggs Gallery itself, which has provided exhibition opportunities for Long Beach-area artists since 2018.
And for Briggs’ family, the exhibition offers a way of keeping Rod’s artistic legacy alive.
For more information, go to longbeachcreativegroup.org/exhibitions.
‘The Swan’
A wild swan crashing through a window is not necessarily the sort of thing that would seem to signal the beginning of a love story.
But in Elizabeth Egloff’s “The Swan,” now coming to The Garage Theatre, that strange encounter sets off a story that moves among comedy, romance and mythology.
The Garage Theatre’s 2026 season continues with this unsettling drama, directed by Rory Cowan, with performances that began on Friday, Aug. 21, and continue through Sept. 26.
At the center of the play is Dora, a lonely nurse living in a Nebraska prairie suburb. She is dissatisfied with her relationship with Kevin, a married man, and stuck in a life that isn’t quite what she imagined for herself.
Then the swan arrives.
The next day, the animal has transformed into a man.
Yes, a man — who Dora names “Bill.”
As Dora and Bill’s relationship develops, their connection becomes increasingly complicated.
Egloff loosely based “The Swan” on the ancient myth of “Leda and the Swan,” one of the more enduring stories in Greek mythology.
Egloff takes a mythological starting point and relocates it somewhere a bit more mundane: suburban Nebraska.
On its website, The Garage Theatre, 251 E. Seventh St., describes the play as combining “deft comedy, tragic romance, and classical gravitas,” and that mixture makes “The Swan” a particularly fitting production for a theater whose programming tends toward unconventional contemporary work.
Performances take place at 8 p.m. Thursdays, Fridays and Saturdays. The run includes an opening/closing-night ticket option with a post-show reception, general admission tickets for $28, and discounted tickets for students, seniors, teachers and military members for $23.
The theater also offers “Twofer Thursdays,” with two-for-one general admission tickets with a minimum purchase of two.
For more information, go to thegaragetheatre.org/onstagenow.