Wonderland Theatre ©2003-2009
Wonderland Productions proudly presents

The Hostage
The Changing State of The HostageBrendan Behans' - The Hostage

By Sarah Finlay

When the curtains went up on the very first performance of The Hostage in London, October 1958, the play had already been through a series of enormous shifts and changes. First appearing as An Giall, Brendan Behan’s play had originally been written in Irish and performed in Dublin earlier that same year. It had a modest reception, and despite his use of the Irish language because "Irish is more direct than English, more bitter" the play did not seem to offend the Dubliners that saw it. Given the international success Behan had already enjoyed, An Giall in English was inevitable. He collaborated with Joan Littlewood of the Theatre Workshop in Stratford East on a new, English language version. This second version was incredibly different from the original, and not just in terms of the language. There were seven new characters, a host of additional musical numbers, new cultural references and allusions, and the play was approximately one third longer. While the original had been heralded as belatedly bringing Gaelic Modernism to the stage, the English version was to have enormous international success- the London Times critic of the day said of the last scene that "Nothing finer in this kind has been written for 2000 years."

It has become a feature of the criticism of the play to question the input of Joan Littlewood, and the consensus seems to be that the play is almost as much her creation as it is Behan’s. While much of the action of the play can probably be accredited to the Theatre Workshop, Behan’s stamp is clear- the dry humour, the Irish jokes, the irreverence, the heightened and self referential dramatic elements that were present even in An Giall. The main reason for many of the changes in the play was simply this- it was being performed for an international audience. The tone of the piece went from somewhat serious to totally irreverent, in part because that was what would win an English audience over to an Irish play about controversial issues in the 1950s. The Hostage opened in New York in 1960, and there were plenty of references for American audiences too- Eisenhower, the FBI and fear of the H-Bomb are all mentioned.

Another difference, as pointed out by the critic Richard Wall, is that "The Hostage has the dubious distinction of being one of the most drink-sodden plays in Anglo-Irish literature". In An Giall all the characters drink is tea, but an English audience would have expected to see Irish characters drinking alcohol, especially the kind of characters on display here. Given Behan’s own reputation the audience would also expect it from him as a playwright. That affects the whole tone of the play- characters nip in and out searching for porter, and the stage will be littered with empty bottles by the end. The drunkenness of the play adds to the wildness- the singing and dancing, the open sexuality, the fighting can all be explained through the characters’ inebriation. While the drink remains on the stage- the open drunkenness allows the audience to let their guard down a little and accept that anything goes.

One reviewer asked "Just how much can an impressive director cover up by bewitching the audience?"But bewitching the audience was always Behan’s intention- "The main problem of the dramatist was to keep his audience amused… it was what you were doing behind their bloody backs that made your play great." Behan wanted to remind them that they are sitting watching a play, and hopefully get them thinking about the issues. It is not an anti-Irish play; it is not an anti-British play. It is a pro-human play, happy to poke fun at those institutions that act ‘on behalf’ of the people. It also goes someway to answering the critics who suggest the play is an exploitation of stage Irishness for English audience consumption. Behan is saying- so what if it is? More fool you for paying to see it…

It was Joan Littlewood’s opinion that the theatre should be an entirely collaborative event between writer, director, performer, designer and critically, the audience. "If anything, she believed in the supremacy of the audience". What Behan and Littlewood created with The Hostage was a dialogue between text and audience. The changes made to An Giall, were not only there to make the play more accessible to a foreign audience, but to force them into becoming a part of the play. Ultimately Behan was very pleased with the new version, preferring Littlewoods style to Frank Dermody’s (director of An Giall.) “Abbey Theatre naturalism.” Behan told us once and for all that the new version of The Hostage was the definitive one.


 
"Without any risk of overstatement, Wonderland Productions is a company that is really going places. A plucky, ideas-driven and indefatigable theatre group, they have had no easy access to conventional venues and have learned to improvise handsomely, staging their works in various site-specific venues." The Irish Times

RTÉ's Lyric FM's Artszone, presented by Aedín Gormley, discusses the show with Alice Coghlan & Morgan Cooke   Click & Listen...

Newstalk Culture Shock radio show with Tom Dunne interviews Alice Coghlan about The Hostage.
Click & Listen...
Credits
From Wonderland Productions Ltd.
Starring:
Michael Bates, Morgan Cooke, Neill Fleming, Robert Harrington, Roseanne Lynch, Eithne McGuinness, Colm O'Brien, Diana O'Connor, Noel O'Shea, Kerrie O'Sullivan, Martin Philips, Lesa Thurman, Francis Xavier Usanga.

The Production Team:
Director & Choreographer: Alice Coghlan
Producer: Nina Antonioli
Composer: Morgan Cooke
Lyrics by: Brendan Behan
Musical Director: Morgan Cooke
Costume Design: Yvonne Carry & Tara Mulvihill
Set Designer: Nimah Dunphy
Props Designer: Eve Parnell
Hair Dressing: Joan Thorpe
Make-Up: Peter Carroll
Fight Director: Keith Ward
Assistant Musical Director: Stella Konik
Assistant Director: Sarah Finlay
Stage Manager: Siobhan Killen
Assistant Stage Managers: Jean Igoe & Laura Weafer
Company Administration: Grainne Lynch
Photography: Clare Conway
Poster/Flyer, Programme & Web: mongoliandesign.com