![]() Similarly, they prevent us from identifying with the blossoming love affair between the hostage (O’Shea) and convent girl Teresa (O’Sullivan) for too long. But while this storyline might just about be called the main plot, the drunken revelry, sexual escapades and musical showstoppers refuse to allow this narrative take centre-stage. Set in a Dublin guesthouse-cum-brothel in the 1950s, Behan’s drama portrays the detention of a young British soldier by the IRA in response to the scheduled execution in Belfast of an IRA volunteer. A hybrid beast since birth, The Hostage contains an unruly mix of characters, ideas, politics, and styles that would scare off most companies. The play that began as An Giall, and premiered at the Damer theatre, Dublin in 1957, was subsequently translated into English by Behan, and later developed further by Joan Littleword for her Theatre Workshop in 1958. Indeed, it is almost as old as some of his jokes.Brendan Behan’s The Hostage is rarely performed, and Wonderland’s recovery reminds us why. Though the unconventional structure of his play is modern, his humor goes back to another period. Even his beloved Irish heritage was a subject for fun when he was moved to laugh. Humor, especially American humor, has been severely limited in recent years by fears of offending particular groups - be they based on religion, race, nationality or any other grouping.īehan was an unfettered spirit and recognized no restrictions. But there are others who may not like it for different reasons. Obviously, "The Hostage" is not for anyone who is offended by ribaldry. Robert Allman, for all of his rapid-fire jokes, gives us a portrait of a cynical man whose dreams of the past grow wilder and whose war wounds grow more painful as the liquor flows faster and the night grows longer.īOB MOAK AND SUSAN McARTHUR as the innocents make their quiet roles stand out in the midst of all the bedlam. ![]() June Gibbons gives the impression of toughness combined with a soft heart. You would think that they had been doing English music hall routines all their lives.Įdith Owen is perfect as a sanctimonious old gal who isn't as pure as she seems. The acting company is a smoothly working unit, a genuine ensemble group. If Behan's script is essentially a series of vaudeville routines, then this is the way to play it. Where the national company emphasized the vulgarities, the Play House group makes it all seem rather mischievous.ĭIRECTOR Richard Oberlin opens the show brightly and keeps it that way. Now, while there isn't much that can be done to scrub the material there are subtle differences in the presentations. ![]() The show has played Cleveland once before, when a touring company presented it at the Hanna. Topical references have been tossed in and a feeling of improvisation pervades the theater. Characters stand up and insult each other, come forward and talk to the audience. It is mostly a collection of songs, most of them bawdy.and gags, most of them blue. It doesn't sound like much of a story and it isn't. The two innocents among them are a young serving girl and the English soldier. THE TIME IS THE PRESENT and the setting a brothel peopled by drunks, prostitutes, homosexuals, aging patriots living in the past and young patriots who don't know what the present is all about. What little story it has is about the kidnapping of a British soldier by Irish patriots and his death in reprisal for the execution of an Irishman who has killed a policeman. "The Hostage" is less a play than it is a vaudeville show with a thin plot line a barroom brawl with two intermissions. He figured them to be a hopeless and pathetic lot and out of all the vulgarities and ribaldry of "The Hostage" emerges the plaintive and lonely line: "Nobody loves you like yourself." And if such a description of Behan seems offensive, Behan himself would be the first to jeer at the thought and would list his drinking abilities first - not last.īehan's bawdy romp pokes fun at the English, the Irish, the church, the law, government, race, politics, police, army and any other institution one of his wild swings might hit.Īll he liked were people, and those he loved. The late Irish wit, writer and boozer wrote a play that makes audiences laugh while he offends everyone. If the proscenium and stage were not there you might take it for a saloon party. ![]() Tony Mastroianni Review Collection Play House Has a Brawl in "Hostage" Cleveland Press February 8, 1967īrendan Behan's variety show called "The Hostage" is a play because it takes place in a theater.
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