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PBQ5MIX'Hostage' At Times Is SpellbindingBY THOMAS DUDDYThe Gallery Players of Park Slope gaveitself a daunting project when it decided tomount Brendan Behan%u2019s comedy, %u201cTheHostage,%u201d which opened at the BerkeleyCarroll Street School last Friday night. Ifthe performance did not succeed on allcounts, if in fact it was more successful asan accumulation of parts than as a whole,and if it didn%u2019t find much of the darknesspromised in the sub-title, %u201ca black comedywith music,%u201d it was often very entertainingand, yes, with song and dance, too.The sprawl of Behan%u2019s play (a good dealof which was grafted on to the Englishtranslation of the playwright%u2019s original Irishlanguage version) makes these pitfalls noteasily avoided. Set in a Dublin brothel during one day and night in the late 1950%u2019s, theplot concerns itself with the question ofwhether a young English solider broughtcaptive by I.R.A. officers to the brothel willor will not be executed in retaliation for theimminent execution of a young I.R.A.soldier held in a Belfast jail.The dramatic hurdle to be leapt here layin working the unwieldy politicalbackground into the rich and active verbalstyle. This hurdle director Brian Curtis didnot jump, primarily because he left unformed the most difficult role in the play, that ofI.R.A. captor, Pat. It%u2019s Pat who bears theburden of an exposition which shifts subtlythroughout the play from historical allusionto the more questionable genre of the warstory.It is Pat%u2019s %u201csort of%u201d wife, Meg, whochallenges Pat%u2019s %u201csort of%u201d truth in the thirdact; and it is Teresa, the play%u2019s sweet youngthing, who in her curtain speech tells Patthat it is not the historic Troubles which%u201ctrouble%u201d him, but his own %u201clost youth.%u201d%u201cThe Hostage%u201d wants a Pat who has knownthe truth of his own %u201csort of%u201d lies all along,whose function as the play%u2019s %u201claughing boy%u201dis to belie (as the resurrection of thehostage belies his death) his own %u201cDannyBoy%u201d sentimentality and the Irish propensity for nostalgia and reminiscence whichBehan held in general contempt.The blackness in Behan%u2019s comedy lies inits flip-flopping about its own dramatictruths, in its teeteringly absurdist inclinations towards self-annulment. Richard McCoy, clearly a capable actor, played Pat ontoo neutral and confining an expressiveground, an area too small and too insistently doddering to accommodate the outerreaches of the character%u2019s perverseness andsatiric function.That the darker colors of the play weregoing to be bleached pale was suggested atonce by the curtain itself: an Irish Republictricolor, whose three panels were prettilypastel and rather too sweetly tattered.When pulled aside, they revealed a dea^finiquity with aesthetically tilted w all^ p dwhat seemed to be a new whorehouseset(bed, bar, and table) made of pressed wood.As the cast of assorted low-lifes began toappear, dressed in well-pressed trousersand kilts and fresh-from-the-cleanersblouses, skirts, and sweaters, one began towonder if it might not be opening night atthe brothel as well as the theatre. No onewants from raucous, jokey Behan theRichard M c C o y and M ark R. H u n t in %u201cTheH o s ta g e .%u201d (Sloan Photo)heavy-breathing realism of %u201cThe LowerDepths,%u201d but neither does he expect the popmadcap look of %u201cYou Can%u2019t Take It WithYou.%u201dPerhaps I%u2019m quibbling. But the GalleryPlayers is a company well worth quibblingover. Very much the practiced ensemble,some performances etched themselves withspecial clarity. The Irish accent fell mostliltingly off the tongue of Deanna Dunmyeras Teresa, the hostage%u2019s love interest. Withthe accents of other actors, even when theysounded accurately and sufficiently Gaelic,one could actually see the effort of musclestrying to wrap themselves around soundsand cadences essentially foreign to them.But Dunmyer was effortlessly at home withthe look and sound of Teresa%u2019s voice andwith everything else the role seemed to askof her. Her scenes with the hostage heldsome ravishingly quiet and moving moments.In the title role, Barnaby Spring was allphysical exuberance, but from which hedeftly downshifted into anxious vulnerability in his third act. Dean Haglin turned in anhilarious cartoon performance asMonsewer, the kilted, bagpipe-playinglunatic owner of the house he thinks is anI.R.A. barracks and not a bordello. And asRio Rita, the homosexual %u201cnaavy%u201d alwaysin the company of his black transvestiteboyfriend %u201cPrincess Grace%u201d (ably playedby Ron Larkin), Tom McClary was campitself.Brief mention might also be made of thedeliciously whorish details Ann Walter andGina Camley gave to the small roles of Collette and Ropeen. Other members of thisexceptionally well-tempered cast includeCarole Forman, Billy Horwitz, Heidi Miller,Mark Hunt, Kris Whiteleather, and JackKaplan. Music was provided by HarrietBuckwalter at the piano and by Mary Mannon the fiddle.%u201cThe Hostage%u201d continues with performances November V 7 and 8 at 8pm; andNovember 2 and 9 at 3pm. At theBerkeley Carroll St. School, 181 LincolnPI. Tickets are $6. For information andreservations, call 638-5725.Musicians Reject Contract, Threaten OpenerStriking classical free-lance musicians,including the members of the BrooklynPhilharmonic, voted a resounding rejectionto the latest offer from 10 orchestral institutions. But, local orchestra officials still hopethe show will go on.The musical organizations affected wereall signatories to the three year collectivebargaining agreement with the AmericanFederation of Musicians, Ivocal 802 that expired in September. Over 300 of the 350musicians directly involved with thesegroups have been affected by cancelled performances since the strike began October10, including the Philharmonic%u2019s a preseason concert at Brooklyn College.The Brooklyn Philharmonic is scheduledto open its Brooklyn Academy seasonNovember 7 with a performance involvingfour choruses, rock, jazz and folk musiciansand nine soloists, totalling nearly 200 performers, as part of BAM%u2019s Next WaveFestival. Maurice Edwards, generalmanager of the Philharmonic, says %u201ctheconsortium (of the 10 groups) has beenmeeting. We want to get back into thenegotiations this week and see this settled.We%u2019re not thinking of anything but havingthat performance go on as scheduled.The musician%u2019s current per-performancewage is $86 and the union has been askingfor increases over three years to $90, $98and $109. The rejected offer was for $90, $95and $100. Other issues include rehearsalpay, job security and benefits. Judy West ofLocal 802 says, %u201cWe%u2019ll always respond tothe call for negotiations, but we won%u2019t sellout. Right now, we%u2019ll keep striking andpicketing.%u201d %u2014 D.L.w m m m m m m M m m aam Km m m m m m m m iTHE CLAY POTP/MPK SLOPE %u2022 BROOKLYN162 7th AVE (718) 788-6564P o r c e la in- T o r r f %u00a3 > 1 cO V W W J L V I 7Hi a: M - W 10:30 - 6:30 TH. F 10:30 - 7:30 SAT 10:30 - 6:30SUN 12-5. Hrs. w ill be extended lor holiday season.Porcelain earrings by Curtis and Susan Benzie price . $ 2 9M a ria B e n it e zSPANISH DANCE CO.with guestJ o s e G r e c oT w o o f t h e g r e a t e s t l i v i n gp e r f o r m e r s o fS p a n i s h D a n c e .%u201c . . v i g o r o u s , c h a r i s m a t i c \THE VILLAGE VOICEB a t s h e v aDANCE CO. OF IS R A E LT w o e x c i t i n g p r o g r a m sw i t h t h r e e N e w Y o r kp r e m i e r e s .. . s t r o n g , e x c i t i n g .I t d a n c e s e v e r y s t e pw i t h i t s h e a r t \THE NEW YORK TIMESfor b o th ev en ts* * $ 1 6 , $ 1 2 , $ 1 0 . $ 8Box Office: C h a rg e by p h o n e.(718) 434-B C B CYou'll see me at(%u00a3 B ro o k ly n C enter fo r^ the Perfo rm ing A rtsat B ro o k ly n CollegeFor All The News Of What%u2019s Happening In The BusyNeiahborhoods of Rrnwn%u00ab:tnno Brooklyn, You Need ThePhoenix Newspaper Every Week.Brooklyn%u2019s Brownstone neighborhoods are busy with activity like never before and you can besure to be part of it all with an annua! subscription to The Phoenix Newspaper, the voice ofBrownstone Brooklyn. All the news of arts, politics and neighborhood events, delivered right toyour mailbox 52 tim es a year. M ake sure you're part of the action.O c to b er 30, 1986, T H E P H O E N IX , Page 23