Hostage 

Reviewed by Iris Mann
Skylight Theatre 
Extended through July 22 

RECOMMENDED 

The fierceness and self-sacrifice of motherly love is at the core of Hostage, a heartfelt and thought-provoking play by Michelle Kholos Brooks. The work also deals with political issues and the clash of cultures. Brooks explores these themes around the Iranian hostage crisis, rendering the work especially timely given the current controversy over our country’s withdrawal from the multinational Iranian nuclear deal.

For those either ignorant of or too young to remember, the crisis began in November 1979, when Iranian students stormed the U.S. embassy in Tehran, taking some 52 hostages. The students resented America’s support for what they considered the brutal regime of Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi; they also objected to America’s intrusion into their Islamic culture. They became particularly enraged after President Jimmy Carter invited the Shah, who had been deposed during the Iranian revolution, to the United States to receive cancer treatment.

In 1980, Barbara Timm, mother of the youngest hostage, faced incredible danger by flying to Tehran to see her son and try to get him released. In her play, Brooks imagines what might have taken place during that meeting and its aftermath.

Early in the proceedings, when Timm (Tracie Lockwood) first sees her child, Marine Sergeant Kevin Hermening (Zachary Grant), in captivity, he is barefoot, blindfolded and unshaven. A rash covers his face and hands, which are tied in front of him. As his blindfold is removed, he is stunned to see his mother. Although they are allowed to hug, they remain closely guarded by Tehran Mary (Vaneh Assadourian), the media spokesperson for the hostage-takers, and Ebrahim (Satiar Pourvasei), a dedicated revolutionary, who wields a rifle and refers to the hostages as their “guests.”

During their conversation, mother and son are continually threatened if they broach such subjects as how Kevin is being treated or what is being done to free the captives. Nevertheless, Barbara often challenges their two Iranian guards.

After the U.S. military launches an operation to free the hostages, which fails disastrously, Timm, afraid the students will take revenge on her son, makes a public apology that is carried by the press. Although she is acting under duress, she is also angry at President Carter and the State Department for their entire handling, or mishandling, of the crisis. When she returns home to Wisconsin, she is vilified and called a traitor by crowds of people who demonstrate outside her house, threatening her and even throwing a brick through her window. The failed rescue attempt, Timm’s actions and her subsequent vilification are based on fact, but the play goes further and is structured to suggest a parallel between the mobs at home and those in Iran.

Despite the historical outcome — the hostages were freed after 444 days — Brooks manages to create tension in her narrative. The action alternates between Timm’s living room and the Iranian prison, and Brooks employs the inventive device of having Timm, when at home, mentally interact with Kevin and his guards — symbolically conveying the strength of her bond with her son and adding a touch of magical realism to the stark situation. She deepens what could be considered a black and white conflict by having Ebrahim and Mary present their arguments with a certain amount of logic. And she deftly injects humor throughout the play, as when Timm, a conservative, says she is beginning to rethink her support for the 2nd amendment after seeing people watching her with guns everywhere in Iran.

The play’s impact is immeasurably heightened by the skillful direction of Elina de Santos, who smoothly stages the intricate scenario, establishing a driving pace that never falters and eliciting sterling performances from the cast.

As a zealot dedicated to her cause, Assadourian projects an assured, sometimes arrogant or infuriating attitude. Later, the purity of her character’s stance is rendered laughable when she remarks she would like someone glamorous to play her if a movie is made about the conflict. Here the complexity of the issues and the people involved come through with striking precision.

For his part, Pourvasei has a subtly menacing quality that is disquieting. Yet he can be deeply moving and elicits Barbara’s sympathy when his character recounts the killing of his four-year-old son by the Shah’s secret police during a raid.

Grant inhabits the role of Kevin with total commitment, as do Christopher Hoffman, who plays Richard Hermening, Kevin’s father and Barbara’s ex-husband, and Jack Clinton as Kenny Timm, Barbara’s current husband.

But the evening belongs to Lockwood. She delivers an unwavering, strong performance that emanates from the deepest parts of her being as she glides easily through a panoply of emotions, all buttressed by her intense motherly love. It is this capacity for love that enables her character to sympathize with Ebrahim’s loss.

While some may take umbrage at the playwright’s presentation of both sides in these hostilities, including her comparison of the angry mobs at home to the angry mobs in Iran, her approach gives us powerful theater.

Skylight Theatre, 1816 ½ N. Vermont Ave, Los Angeles; Fri –Sat., 8:30 p.m.; Sun., 2 p.m.; Mon., 8:00 p.m.; Extended through July 22. (213)761-7061or https://ci.ovationtix.com/34914/production/991229. Running time: 80 minutes with no intermission.