Someone Who'll Watch Over Me

by Frank McGuinness, Brian Keenan (Introduction)

An Englishman, an Irishman and an American are locked up together in a cell in the Middle East. As victims of political action, powerless to initiate change, what can they do? How do they live and survive?

Frank McGuinness explores the daily crisis endured by hostages whose strength comes from communication, both subtle and mundane, from humour, wit and faith.

Someone Who'll Watch Over Me premiered at the Hampstead Theatre, London, in 1992 before transferring to the West End. On Broadway, it was awarded the New York Drama Critics' Circle Award for Best Foreign Play and nominated for the Tony Award for Best Play in 1993.

Genres: Plays, Theatre, Drama

96 pages, Paperback

First published January 7, 1993

About the author

Frank McGuinness is Professor of Creative Writing in University College Dublin. A world-renowned playwright, his first great stage hit was the highly acclaimed ‘Observe the Sons of Ulster Marching Towards the Somme’. He is also a highly skilled adapter of plays by writers such as Ibsen, Sophocles, Brecht, and writer of several film scripts, including Dancing at Lughnasa, and he has published several anthologies of poetry.

Reviews

[Nick Jones · Rating 3 out of 5]

An Irishman, an Englishman and an American are chained to a wall of a cell in 1980s Lebanon. Frank McGuinness was inspired by Brian Keenan’s account of being kidnapped and held for four and a half years through the late 1980s – I don’t know Keenan’s book (An Evil Cradling), but I presume it was an inspiration for the play, not a source. Someone Who’ll Watch Over Me is not a political play, the events are not placed into any historical context. The kidnappers are never seen and we don’t know their motivations. However, politics must haunt the play and it’s open to wonder if we are shown First World victims of Third World brutality – I presume this was not McGuinness’s intention, but plays live their own lives. What we are shown, over nine scenes, are the three characters trying to come to terms with their captivity, struggling against fear, discomfort, boredom. Sometimes they resort to fantasy or fiction (e.g., the drinking scene), but there are signs of mental decay under the pressure. Edward, the Irishman, is the most dynamic of the characters, a cynical journalist, he seems to enjoy aggravating the others – it’s uncertain whether he does this through pique at the situation or whether he is trying to toughen the other’s up...or, at least, toughen up Michael, the Englishman, who arrives in the second scene baffled and disorientated. And by the end there is a certain reversal, Michael now seem tougher and able to face the situation with a greater strength. But I’m not sure what the play’s really doing – but maybe it’s a character study of characters caught in an extreme situation: maybe that’s all it needs to be doing. Humour is one of their tactics to face the situation...so, at times, it’s an amusing play. I’m not convinced it doesn’t make a horrendous experience somehow mundane.

[Claire · Rating 5 out of 5]

"Someone Who'll Watch Over Me" is one of the best war plays ever written. This haunting, heartbreaking, and funny work tells the story of an American, an Englishman and an Irishman trapped in a Middle Eastern prison cell together. (Which totally sounds like the beginning of a racist joke.) This play is so beautiful and sad and the scene where the English guy and the Irish guy argue about what really caused the Famine is just hilarious. Everything about this play is brilliant.

[David · Rating 4 out of 5]

The 2005 revival (with David Threlfall, Jonny Lee Miller, and Aiden Gillen) was by turns incredibly poignant, funny, and tragic - a good text made fantastic in production.

[Andrew Lawston · Rating 5 out of 5]

I played Michael Watters in a charity production of Someone Who'll Watch Over Me in March 2012. In order to learn the lines I had to spend about three months reading this book every day. And I never got bored with it. Switching from absurd comedy to high drama in the space of a line, this is certainly the best play I have ever performed in. When we were selling tickets, the director would tell people it was the best play written in the last 25 years. Hyperbole, to be sure, but it has to be a contender.

[Marcia · Rating 5 out of 5]

I attended the play in New York before I read it. It was powerful and poignant. I saw Stephen Rea, James McDaniel, and Alec McCowan. The production included a stark set, with part ofElla Fitzgerald's version of George and Ira Gershwin's "Someone To Watch Over Me" between scenes as the lights faded to a starlit "sky."

[Jason · Rating 5 out of 5]

A devastating 3 hander! Three men in a cell in Beirut, trying to eep their sanity and their hope alive. Just reading this was heart wrenching, I can only imagine what it is like to sit through a production of it!

[Emelia · Rating 5 out of 5]

A wonderful exploration of human nature. How do we deal with isolation and loneliness? With loss? Hoe big are our imagines?

[Derek Fraser · Rating 5 out of 5]

What a challenge for three actors, but it would be so thrilling to make this play come alive.

[Daniel · Rating 5 out of 5]

Might be my favorite play of all time. If not, top five.

[Sarah Borden · Rating 5 out of 5]

One of the all-time realistic, fantastic, sad, triumphant plays. Three characters you'll never forget in a situation you'll desperately wish you could.

[Debora · Rating 4 out of 5]

Brilliant. Clever, funny and moving.

[Bobby Sullivan · Rating 2 out of 5]

A one-room play with three characters has got to be one of the toughest types of plays to write. On one hand, it simplifies the casting and the staging, but those aren't really the author's problem, anyway. This play is even tougher, because the characters are all chained to the wall. The "action" is therefore largely limited to what's going on intellectually and emotionally inside the characters' heads. I couldn't help but compare this play to Genet's DEATHWATCH and Sartre's NO EXIT. Unfortunately, I this play doesn't really measure up.

[Gkats5513 · Rating 3 out of 5]

Three white men from the Western World trying to save their sanity while chained in a cell in Lebanon as hostages of some Arab terrorist(?) group. It's funny, but not very funny and that's about it.

[JaNelle · Rating 5 out of 5]

So well written. So hard to read knowing there are people in chains as I safely read. I read this years ago and will read this again in years to come.

[Josie Jaffrey]

Funny and heartbreaking.

[Kathryn Baron · Rating 4 out of 5]

I saw the play in New York with a friend. I liked it well enough that I decided to purchase a copy from the next door bookshop. They had a stack by the front door. I picked up a copy and was head down absorbed in deciding if I already had a copy of another work when someone inquired where I'd found the play. Without looking up, I answered. The voice said "good." My flabbergasted friend later informed me that I'd been talking to Stephan Rea, one of the actors in the play.

[Jason · Rating 2 out of 5]

i guess it wasn't too bad, but it seemed that these 3 characters could have as easily be sitting in a bar talking instead of being chained to a wall in a windowless room somewhere in Lebanon.

[John]

Suspect this plays much better than it reads but would make for a harrowing evening's entertainment. Thought provoking.