Someone Who'll Watch Over Me

by Frank McGuinness

2004

What happens when you put an Englishman, an Irishman, and an American in a room together?

When the room is a cell in Beirut, and the men are hostages held in an act of political terrorism, the answer is, amazingly, a great deal of fun, fantasy and song as they fight their way through fear, humiliation and hatred and find in each other the glimmer of salvation. Frank McGuinness gives a realistic portrayal of the fear and desperation felt by three innocent men facing insanity and even death and examines the capacity of human beings held in such situations to be kind, to endure, to have courage in adversity and, above all, to have hope in the future.

It is almost twenty years now since the wave of abductions in Lebanon. Between 1982 and 1989 fifty-nine men were taken hostage and held for periods of as much as eight years. The majority somehow seem to have emerged enlightened by the experience, each having evolved his own means of survival.

Terry Waite was one of them. He went back to Lebanon for the first time in February this year. Of his time as a hostage he reflected, "My sufferings pale into insignificance …no one in this world is immune from experiencing difficulty … one has to meet it and attempt to deal with it positively."

Someone Who’ll Watch over Me applies a dramatic slant to the experiences of Brian Keenan, John McCarthy, Terry Waite, Terry Anderson and others who shared their privation; a journey through their developing friendship and love and an exploration of how relationships evolve in extreme circumstance.

This play was performed under the joint patronage of the NWTC, Round Tower Players, Pirate Productions and Amnesty International.

All proceeds went to Amnesty International

The play was performed from
14 to 17 September 2004
at the Check Inn, Findel