Making a Killing by Ben Kernow

The ropes are ready, the crowd is waiting, and the hangman has a new apprentice.

About the event

When Claus Kohler is apprenticed to Frantz Schmidt, Nuremberg’s seasoned executioner, the two men are thrown together in a world where duty, morality, and power collide, and every decision leaves a mark. But as the gallows fill and suspicion takes root, their fates become dangerously entwined, until both must decide who they are, and which side of the rope they stand on.

Performed by just two actors, Making a Killing is a razor-sharp, dark comedy about justice, corruption, and the cost of survival in a world disturbingly like our own. Bold, biting, and impossible to ignore, the play takes inspiration from The Journal of Master Frantz Schmidt, Public Executioner of Nuremberg, 1573–1617. A remarkable historical record that lays bare the humanity and contradictions of a man who killed for a living.

poster for Making a Killing by Ben Kernow at the theatre royal

Date

Tuesday 14th & Wednesday 15th April, 2026

Time

7:30pm

Location

Theatre Royal, Dumfries, DG1 2JH

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