Old Globe Captures Charms of ‘Hostage’

SAN DIEGO — Appropriately enough, a fine new look at Irish playwright Brendan Behan’s late-’50s dark farce “The Hostage” comes from a director named Jack O’Brien.

The artistic helmsman of the Old Globe has revived the late Behan’s cockeyed view of the Irish-English “troubles” with fresh irreverence worthy of the rebellious, liquor-loving playwright himself. It’s a difficult play to present--and to absorb--because of its funny-to-serious mood swings, tonal changes and slang-filled low-brow Irish brogues, but O’Brien and his large cast have, for the most part, captured the work’s charm and impertinence.

The struggle over the future of Northern Ireland remains bitter, of course, but as a Kosovo reference in the revised, pun-rich script reminds us, the “Hostage” story could be played out in too many other locales around the world.

The action takes place in a ramshackle Dublin rooming house that serves mainly as a brothel. The place is populated with sundry characters who give voice, spoken and musical, to Behan’s wry observations. And one of his points, significantly, is that people are not always who they seem to be.

It’s the night before the scheduled execution, in Belfast, of an Irish youth. Although the imminent event peppers the conversations, the first act is largely comedic, verbally and physically. Then a young British soldier is captured and brought to the inn, kept under guard as a possible trade for the condemned teen. Behan, who himself spent several years as a prisoner, generally depicts the captivity as genteel and the soldier as likable, but the tragedy of the situation is never far away.

O’Brien’s staging eliminates the “fourth wall,” with characters roaming all through the theater and repeatedly interacting with the audience. One of the reasons “Hostage” is rarely done is the challenge of assembling a large cast of actors who can handle the Irish dialect and sing reasonably well. For this group, no problems with the singing, few with the acting.

Standouts are Larry Drake as Pat, a war veteran with a wooden leg; Ellen Crawford as Meg, his ex-prostitute mate; Mary Lou Rosato as a randy “sociable” worker with a voice trained by an “electrocutionist”; and Michael Potts as a drag queen.

The technical work is equally commendable, particularly Ralph Funicello’s dilapidated two-story set, with bottles of stout looking like footlights, and Ann Hould-Ward’s superbly defining costumes, from a hooker’s pointy bra and runny hose to the “sociable” worker’s old-maid dowdiness. Bill Doyle has added some original music to Behan’s and enhanced the proceedings with ingeniously harmonious musical direction.

* “The Hostage,” Old Globe Theatre, Balboa Park, San Diego. Tuesdays-Fridays, 8 p.m.; Saturdays, 2 and 8 p.m.; Sundays, 2 and 7 p.m. Ends Oct. 31. $23-$39. (619) 239-2255. Running time: 2 hours, 35 minutes (including intermission).