Kerr reviews The Hostage in this excerpt, finding the play to be an entertaining and provoking experience, ultimately calling the play, "a wild night and a welcome one."

During the first moments of The Hostage it was difficult to know whether author Brendan Behan was simply committing a nuisance or renewing the life of the stage. One character was heard to remark of another that he had "a face like a plateful of mortal sins," which is just how the play looked.

The curtain rose on a grinning and feverish jig which was no part of the narrative but intended solely for the audience's macabre, and slightly startled, delectation. The jiggers included an old crone in black with her front teeth missing, an amiable ex-revolutionary with his one leg useless, a redheaded tart, a couple of homosexuals and a hymn-singer hiding behind spectacles.

When this broth settled...