CAHSS Faculty Articles
Hostage Drama (Frank McGuinness, Someone Who’ll Watch Over Me Faber and Faber, 1992)
Department
Department of Literature and Modern Languages
Publication Date
9-1-1993
Publication Title
Irish Literary Supplement
ISSN
0733-3390
Volume
12
Issue/No.
2
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.
NSUWorks Citation
Doan, J. E. (1993). Hostage Drama (Frank McGuinness, Someone Who’ll Watch Over Me Faber and Faber, 1992). Irish Literary Supplement, 12 (2) Retrieved from https://nsuworks.nova.edu/shss_facarticles/170
ORCID ID
0000-0002-4966-1251