
Making a Killing
23rd September 2025 - 15th May 2026
By Ben Kernow
The ropes are ready, the crowd is waiting, and the hangman has a new apprentice. 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.
Ben Kernow
Writer
Chris Baker
Sound Designer & Composer
Louis King
Technical Stage Manager
Darren Seed
Cover Actor
Vanessa Jackson
Marketing
Chris Yacoubien
Production Videography
Millie Brolly
Director
Grace Murdoch
Movement Director
Graham Cole
Set Construction
Barbora Bodlakova
Session Violinist
Teddy Freeman
Production Photography
Rebecca Thomas
Producer
Marion Harrison
Set & Costume Designer
Simon Hutchings
Lighting Designer
Jasmine Fassenfelt
Scenic Artist
Rebecca Pitt
Graphic Designer
Lynn Batten
Production Photography
Ben Kernow
Producer
Presented by Ha Hum Ah Productions in association with Minack Theatre


1 hour 55 minutes (not including interval)














