Word: behan
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: during 1980-1989
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
When he wrote The Hostage in 1958. Behan appealed to human kindness to make himself understood. The Hostage pulls off a rare dramatic teat: it's "political" without being heavy-handed, a message play that doesn't succumb to self-righteous moralizing. It takes place in a Dublin brothel where I.R.A. officers hold an eighteen-year-old British soldier hostage in reprisal for one of their own men who awaits hanging in a Belfast jail, Irish. The whorehouse-declaimed by society as a sinful place-is inhabited by a gang of cheerful, extremely humane eccentries who live by their...
...Behan, though, felt that The Hostage seemed contrived. Drawing from the music hall tradition of entertainment, the play includes songs and dances that serve more to keep the audience amused than to accelerate the plot or enhance a theme. In an awkward second act scene, the actors break character, joke about the author, and have a little party onstage. It's strange interlude that seems merely thrown in to break up the play's growing tension and fails to fit into The Hostage's overall scheme...
There are several bright moments in James Bundr's production of The Hostage, some flashes of terrific talent and intelligence. Yet the production's general tone is muddled, its overall effect anesthetizing. Perhaps, Behan's mixture of music hall exuberance and potent anti-war commentary threw Bundy for a loop. An odd sense of uncertainly pervades many scenes, making for an intriguing but unsatisfying evening of theater...
...times-Bundy displays a solid understanding of Behan's work, but, constantly, he falters. He interweaves the different themes and sub-plots with careful grace, but a bit too meticulously. Bundy's self-conscious style gives The Hostage an inappropriate solemnity. The frequent wisecracking of Behan's characters-their defense against despair and such horrors of the Modern Age as the H. bomb-loses all its verve as the director has his actors take long. Thoughtful pauses between too many lines. He dilutes the strength of many of the songs by having them performed like dirges. When the company joins...
...house. Brian McCue is quite good, but, as in many of his past performances, the seams show. There's a "stagey" quality to his limp, his wry grin, his extravagant gestures: one can see too clearly the thought behind every inflection, perhaps. McCue hoped to play upon Behan's theme of dramatic distance, to make the audience sharply conscious of the fact that they are in a theater viewing a performance. Unfortunately, his characterization only reflects the dull spontaneity of Bundy's directional style. McCue, as always, takes stronghold of the audience's interest, but he fails to excite...