I don’t watch the news. It’s always terrible things happening to men, women and children in all parts of the world. I can’t do anything about it. Watching it only makes me feel useless. So, I use this excuse to change the channel. A lot of people do.
The real reason is that, if we look at it, it might become real. And, if it’s real, it could happen to someone—anyone—we know.
Because we won’t watch, sometimes things that should have us screaming in outrage, demanding that a horrible situation be stopped at all costs, are instead merely blips on our radar. Director Genevieve Aichele told us as much in her pre-show speech at New Hampshire Theatre Project in Portsmouth

The play “Someone Who’ll Watch Over Me,” by Frank McGuinness (an Irish writer with both eyes open), shows two and a half hours of the four-plus years that three men—American doctor Adam (Brian Chamberlain), Irish journalist Edward (Blair Hundertmark) and British professor Michael (Peter Motson)—endured in captivity in Beirut.

They knew they were political prisoners, and they knew their lives must have some value. While they would occasionally be beaten, they had strong reason to hope they would not be killed. They couldn’t be kept alive, chained to a wall in a room without windows, for no purpose at all, they reasoned. But, mostly, they didn’t think or talk about that. Instead, they told stories. They “made” films. They toasted, goaded and forced each other to exercise. They sang. They laughed. They kept each other from falling off the tightrope of sanity upon which they balanced through each endless day.

This is a remembrance of men who fought for their spirits and sanity, brought to life with actors of equal skill. Motson’s character, the British professor, at first seems a weakling who won’t survive a single night. Yet, it’s he who proves, at the core, that he cannot be broken. What he has, they cannot take. He can have his fear; he simply has to control it. It is for this skill that the other two come to rely on him. Chamberlain, the American doctor, at first retains his calm, but eventually dances on the edge of the abyss. At times, it’s agonizing to watch. Hundertmark, the tough Irish journalist—the one with all the jokes and comebacks—treats every moment like they’re just a group of guys hanging out. But, he never lets you forget that he knows where he is.

Not one of these men act during the two and a half hours. There isn’t a false moment, a false blink, a false breath. Each man, in his own very different way, is bare, naked, raw and real. Chamberlain is hope, and when hope cracks, it’s not just agonizing, it’s terrifying. Motson is dignity. He was the guy who got picked last for dodge ball, and he was likely the guy voted least likely to marry anyone but a family member. But, he is the steel that cannot be cut. Hundertmark—there is not a talent onstage in any city that can surpass what he brings to each and every syllable he utters. As I told him personally, I have never had my heart ripped out of my chest like that by a man that I wasn’t sleeping with. I can’t sum it up any better than that.

Last, but by no means least, is our director, Genevieve Aichele. She brings you to parts of the world that we try to pretend aren’t there. In her choice of material, her courage is unmatched. She doesn’t so much direct her actors as she puts them into the story.

Only, this is no story. This is truth. This is what Aichele does, and she does it with brilliance.

Big props to set/lighting director Meghann Beauchamp and costume designer Christy Cloutier Holmes for their “less is more” perspective. It created the perfect pallet for a quiet truth, which created a blip that should have been a scream of outrage.
“Someone Who’ll Watch Over Me” runs through Sunday,  Nov. 25, at West End Studio Theatre/NHTP, 959 Islington St., Portsmouth. Call 603-431-6644 or email This email address is being protected from spam bots, you need Javascript enabled to view it to make reservations.