Hostages
by Yussef El Guindi

Two college professors have left their homeland for a country that soon devolves into a war zone.

They're accustomed to lives of comfort, but it's hard to get comfortable when you're chained to a radiator.

HOSTAGES explores the intricacies of human nature when it's deprived of personal contact and torn from the pleasantries of everyday life.“As the play opens two blindfolded early-middle-aged men are chained to an old-fashioned steam radiator in an otherwise empty room.

Kidnapped by terrorists, both are college professors, who had been teaching at a foreign university … The starkly different personalities of the two are revealed [in] dialogue [that] is incredibly witty and full of gallows humor, yet psychological insights abound … Enlightening without being didactic, [HOSTAGES is] outstanding creative theatre.”

—Marie Bonfils, Drama in the Hood“This is must-see theatre, for if the role of theatre is not solely to entertain but to provoke contemplation about our humanity — even if it means assaulting our senses, sensibilities, and assumptions and creating discomfort — then HOSTAGES fits the bill … It is a measure of El Guindi’s genius and craftsmanship that he pulls the audience aboard the excursion.”

—Herbert Paine, Broadway World Review“HOSTAGES is about our individual humanity and the related concept of fellowship.

Echoing, in different ways, works by Sartre and Beckett, El Guindi explores how we survive on our own and how we survive with each other; what makes us ourselves and what makes us — and prevents us from being — free.

HOSTAGES ranks as compelling and worthy theatre.”

—Martin Denton, nytheater.com“El Guindi’s dialogue and humor are sharp enough to cut.”

—Thom Taylor, Spectator Magazine