The Hostage October 31, 2009

The Griffin Theatre Company opens its 21st season with Irish playwright Brendan Behan's most celebrated play, 'The Hostage.' In 1959 Dublin, a young British soldier is held captive by the Irish Republican Army while an equally young IRA volunteer awaits execution for killing a policeman. Should the British carry out the Irishman's sentence, the IRA will do the same to the Englishman. Playwright Brendan Behan, himself a former IRA member, took this dire premise to mold a sly political satire. Griffin ensemble member Jonathan Berry brings his directorial vision to Behan's play set in a Dublin brothel and reveals it to be a rollicking, bawdy comedy, full of brawling energy, song and satire that mixes beautifully with powerful drama.