CAHSS Faculty Articles

Hostage Drama (Frank McGuinness, Someone Who’ll Watch Over Me Faber and Faber, 1992)

ORCID ID

0000-0002-4966-1251

Publication Title

Irish Literary Supplement

ISSN

0733-3390

Publication Date

9-1-1993

Abstract

The musical and poetic elements of Frank McGuinness’s previous plays are brought to an even higher crescendo in his latest work, Someone Who’ll Watch Over Me, which had its world premiere at the Hampstead Theatre in London in July 1992, directed by Robin Lefevre (with concurrent publication by Faber and Faber). The play concerns three hostages in Lebanon, an American doctor, Adam (played by Hugh Quarshie), an Irish journalist, Edward (played by Stephen Rea), and an English academic, Michael (played by Alec McCowen), who find themselves in a cell, chained by their ankles to the walls. They are introduced one at a time, beginning with Adam, followed by Edward and then Michael, with the first two removed by death or release, so that Michael is left alone at the end of the play. This lends a tight ABCBA structure to the play: solos at each end, then dyads and a triad in the center.

Volume

12

Issue

2

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