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The Hostage
About this book
An essential text in the development of modern British drama First staged by Joan Littlewood's Theatre Workshop company at the Theatre Royal, Stratford East, London, in 1958, The Hostage is a play about a Cockney soldier held as a hostage in a Dublin lodging house in exchange for an IRA man who is to be hanged in Belfast. Civic Guards accidentally shoot him in a raid on the house. It is a witty and often profound comment on Anglo-Irish relationships and on the Irish themselves. This is Behan's best-known and most popular play and a classic of the modern stage.A magnificent entertainment which "crowds in tragedy and comedy, bitterness and love, caricature and portrayal, ribaldry and eloquence, patriotism and cynicism..." (Harold Hobson, The Times)
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Yes, you can access The Hostage by Brendan Behan in PDF and/or ePUB format, as well as other popular books in Littérature & Théâtre. We have over one million books available in our catalogue for you to explore.
Information
"The
Hostage"
was
first
presented
by
Theatre
Workshop
at
the
Theatre
Royal,
Stratford,
London
E.I5,
on
14th
October,
1958.
A
revised
version
was
presented
by
Theatre
Workshop
at
the
Paris
Théâtre
des
Nations
Festival
on
3rd
April,
1959,
and
in
conjunction
with
Donmar
Productions
Ltd.,
at
Wyndham's
Theatre
on
llth
June,
1959.
The
text
in
this
edition
is
of
this
later
production.
The
cast,
on
this
occasion,
was
as
follows:
PAT,
the
caretaker
of
a
lodging-house
Howard
Goorney
MEG
DILLON,
his
consort
MONSEWER,
the
owner
of
the
house
RIO
RITA,
a
homosexual
navvy
PRINCESS
GRACE,
his
coloured
boy-
friend
MR.
MULLEADY,
a
decaying
Civil
Servant
MISS
GILCHRIST,
a
social
worker
COLETTE,
a
whore
ROPEEN,
an
old
whore
LESLIE
WILLIAMS,
a
British
soldier
TERESA,
the
skivvy,
a
countrygirl
I.R.A.
OFFICER,
a
fanatical
patriot
VOLUNTEER,
Feargus
O'Connor,
a
ticket-collector
RUSSIAN
SAILOR
KATE,
the
pianist
Eileen
Kennally
Glynn
Edwards
Stephen
Cato
Roy
Barnett
Brian
Murphy
Ann
Beach
Yootha
Joyce
Leila
Greenwood
Alfred
Lynch
Celia
Salkeld
James
Booth
Clive
Barker
Dudley
Sutton
Kathleen
O'Connor
The
play
produced
by
Joan
Littlewood
Setting
designed
by
Sean
Kenny
This
page
intentionally
left
blank
Table of contents
- Cover
- The Hostag