First performance of Behan’s The Hostage

BRENDAN Behan was an unfortunate genius, who ended his days living up to his reputation as a wild drinking Irishman, rather than writing what his talent was capable of. He tried to cover his failings with his wit, once describing himself as a drinker with a writing problem.

He was born into a staunchly Republican family just after the Civil War. His political beliefs were shaped by his mother, who was a friend and admirer of Michael Collins and her brother, Peadar Kearney, who wrote The Soldiers Song.
His father, Stephen, who also had been active in the War of Independence, influenced the family’s interest in literature by reading classical authors to them as children. Two other brothers, Dominic and Brian, also wrote in later life. Stephen was a painter by trade and the young Brendan left school at 13 and went to work with him.
At 16 he joined the IRA and decided to blow up Liverpool Docks. He was arrested and spent three years in Borstal. Back in Ireland, he was sentenced to 14 years for the attempted murder of two detectives but was released early in 1946.
Undaunted, he went to England where he was again sentenced for trying to break a fellow Republican out of Manchester Jail. By the end of that third spell in prison, the idealist was gone and he devoted himself to writing. Those writings were very much influenced by his early experiences and his autobiography published in 1958 is titled Borstal Boy.
His plays also reflect that early life. The Quare Fellow deals with a prisoner awaiting execution in Mountjoy Jail. Dealing with capital punishment, it was first produced in 1954, the year of the last execution in this country. Initially turned down both by the Abbey and the Gate, it got a six-month run in the Pike Theatre.
It was then produced by Joan Littlewood in the Stratford East Theatre in London. When it transferred to the West End and then to Broadway, Behan’s reputation was made.
His best known play, The Hostage, dealing with a hostage held in Dublin against the execution of a Republican in Belfast, was first written in Irish as An Giall. Again, Littlewood produced the play in England and it was said that if Dylan Thomas wrote under Milkwood then Behan wrote under Littlewood.
Before he succumbed to drink, Behan was a prolific writer and wrote short stories, poems and ballads in Irish and English. His work was first published in a magazine called Envoy, later in The Bell and The Irish Times and he also wrote for radio.
Two of his poems from The Hostage have been translated into a number of languages and recorded in Sweden and Greece.
The song from The Quare Fellow, The Auld Triangle, was written by his brother, Dominic. It is a well know part of The Dubliners’ repertoire, as is Brendan’s own song, The Captains and The Kings. References to his own lifestyle feature in many films and stories and in songs by performers as diverse as the Clancy Brothers, Thin Lizzy and The Boomtown Rats. Many of those references are unfortunately to his lifestyle rather than his output.
Thankfully, that output will last, particularly The Hostage, which had its first performance on October, 8 1958 – 63 years ago this week.