The Hostage

What the Critics Had To Say in 2003

BEST BET!

Jane Horwitz, Washington Post, Around Town

Behan’s approach to the material is briskly satirical, and liberally sprinkled with poetic musicality, so it’s appropriate that the Keegan Theatre’s staging begins as a sort of concert. As the audience files in, Jourdan sits center stage with a beer and a guitar, encouraging patrons to join in on the choruses...audiences are...cajoled into rowdiness before the play proper gets under way.

Then, once it does, whenever Behan’s dialogue threatens to bog down under, the necessary weight of explaining the Irish Troubles, Susan Grevengoed sits down at the piano or Jourdan grabs his guitar, and before long someone’s dancing a jig. Ingvarsson, who’s been far too long absent from local stages, keens a ballad at one point, and time effectively stops until she’s through.

...there are variances in tone...between broadly played music-hall sketches and scenes essayed more realistically...and concludes with a transcendent burst of a cappella harmonizing...

The Hostage is an ambitious undertaking for so small a company, and Keegan’s 16-member cast acquits itself admirably, pretty much without exception.

Bob Mondello, CityPaper

...This high calibre and huge production is highly recommended...

...it is so nice to have Nanna Ingvarsson back on the boards...she has such wonderful stage timing and excellent stage presence...Josh Barrett shines with his top rate Leslie, the hostage...Sarah Ecton does well as the spritely ingenue... All the rest of the cast had excellent accents and contributed fine performances...

...The direction was creative.....costumes by Amber L. Hayes were totally perfect throughout as was the rest of the very professional technicals.

Bob Anthony, Review4u

...Brendan Behan’s The Hostage is an example of the uncertainties of both the arts and the politics of its time. The Hostage was as anti-establishment theater as it was anti-establishment politics. The Keegan Theatre, with its fascination for all things Irish, revives the piece, preserving all of its weaknesses as well as its strengths....

The characters are all quirky and colorful and the large cast that Keegan has assembled features strong performances highlighting the very oddity Behan envisioned.

Strongest among them is David Jourdan as the song-singing leader of the pack who serves as sort of an anti-establishmentarian master of ceremonies with a guitar, a bottle or three of beer and a ready song.

Josh Barrett gives the most traditionally structured performance in the strongest part Behan wrote, that of the hostage of the title.

There is a lot of singing and a bit of dancing in this show, although choreographer Laurie Gilkenson takes pains to keep the dancing from looking like it is formally organized.

Director Mark A. Rhea seems to have given each member of the cast the freedom to create their own take on their character while imposing enough discipline to mesh them together into a single strange society. Given Behan’s aversion to structure, this is no mean trick.

Brad Hathaway, Potomac Stages

The troupe has found its niche, and has developed quite a crop of entertaining actors able to take on a diverse array of roles.

 ...As Pat, David Jourdan stands out with both his acting and singing...Helen Hayes Award-winner Nanna Ingvarsson also stands out as Meg, Pat’s almost-wife...Josh Barrett stands tall, literally and figuratively, as Leslie...It’s a large cast, so to single out a few: Helen Pafumi as the religious do-gooder...Kevin Adams as the old-time Irish revolutionary... Scott Sophos and Tyee Tilghman as, let’s just say flamboyant, male practitioners of the sensual arts; and Richard Mancini as one of the tenants....

Director Mark Rhea does an admirable job keeping all the pieces of this elaborate puzzle together... Rhea and the cast rode this bucking bronco quite well, shooting down piety and pretense every step of the way.

It’s bawdy, but never obscene. Plus, it’s great how the Irish say curse words.

Matt Reville, Sun-Weekly

The artistic director of The Keegan Theatre, Mark A. Rhea, is Arlington’s unofficial U.S. theatrical ambassador to Ireland...

...The Hostage is full of Irish tunes, some humorous and others quite poignant...

...Pat, played to the hilt by David Jourdan...sings and plays guitar and a flute-like instrument. Enough good can’t be said about Jourdan and the cast. His "almost" wife, Meg, played by Nanna Ingvarsson, is quite a match for her wily husband.

Josh Barrett is convincing and likeable as Leslie. Sarah Ecton is terrific as the sweet 19-year old former nun Teresa who falls in love with Leslie. Scott Sophos provides much levity in drag as Rio Rita who, with his drag partners, Princess Grace, played by Tyee Tilghman, and Mr. Mulleady, get together for a show-stopping ditty.

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Rich Massabny, Arlington Weekly News, Channel 33