The Hostage

Tickets and Information

Hard to believe, but mention of Brendan Behan today draws a preponderance of blank stares, even among literary types who fancy themselves in-the-know. During the days of the New Frontier, however, when much of the country was feeling smugly urbane for having elected a president who was Irish-Catholic and well-read, this wild Irish writer was very nearly a household name. And, in New York City--where his temporary home, the Hotel Chelsea, was headquarters of East Coast bohemia--Behan was as celebrated as his bad-boy acquaintances Norman Mailer and Tennessee Williams.

Which is not to say that Behan was as prolific as those two Americans. On the contrary, his reputation was based on a single[...]