The Quare Fellow & The Hostage

THE QUARE FELLOW, a tragi-comedy, is set in an Irish prison on the eve of an execution. Beneath the gallows humour and the farce, Behan has written a savage indictment against the bestiality of capital punishment.

THE HOSTAGE is set in a disreputable Dublin lodging house, where a young Cockney soldier is being held as hostage in reprisal for an I.R.A. man who is to be hanged. The play is a witty and profound comment on Anglo-Irish relations and the Irish themselves, full of rollicking comedy, satirical songs, and ballads.