Arts

Cheers to the smuggler, while Admissions roasts

by Jules Becker
Thursday Nov 21, 2019

This article is from the November 21, 2019 issue of South End News.


Michael Kaye, Nathan Malin and Maureen Keiller in SpeakEasy Stage Company's production of "Admissions." (Courtesy Maggie Hall Photography)
Michael Kaye, Nathan Malin and Maureen Keiller in SpeakEasy Stage Company's production of "Admissions." (Courtesy Maggie Hall Photography)  

One-person shows may not be everybody's brew, but bar-set "the smuggler" has more than the right hops. As with a premium craft beer, the current offering at Boston Playwrights' Theatre possesses a perfect mix.
Right from the start of the latest effort by talented playwright Ronan Noone ("Brendan" and "The Atheist"), gifted veteran actor Billy Meleady presents a fast-paced 70-minute show as the unscrupulous title bartender on fictional New England island Amity and novice writer turned thief Tim Finnegan.
Under Noone's own sharp direction, Meleady—moving handily throughout Adam Hawkins' strong brick and stone scenic design with a long stairway descending to the bar itself, details Finnegan's exploits to the audience, who instantly become tavern patrons.
Tim may be a smooth-talking rogue—especially thanks to Noone's humorous and impressively rhymed dialogue. Yet he does rate sympathy as an Irish immigrant husband-father trying to provide substantive income for his family and fulfill aspirations as a promising short story writer (with a submission accepted by the Paris Review) and would-be novelist.
Agile and versatile Meleady easily makes Timothy's burglar-like serious robberies and his later rough comeuppance vivid with highly expressive body language. His fingers seem to bow the air around him as though he were playing the violin of a Yehudi Menuhin or Itzhak Pearlman.
The music of Meleady's fingers and Noone's poetic writing—for example, a description of Finnegan sneaking over like a soldier in Afghanistan—orchestrate the personal ambiguous odyssey of the play's wily bartender as well as far-reaching subtext about the precarious state of the fabled American dream.
A propos of that dream, Finnegan candidly submits, "You do what you need to do to be what you want to be." Noone may not be glorifying his character's darker methods and motives, but "the smuggler" does bring welcome attention to the proverbial rock and hard place that threaten to crush both documented and undocumented American workers.

No parent pays money to a prestige university in the 2018 play "Admissions," but Joshua Harmon's Drama Desk winner rates very high marks for its insights about white privilege in particular and inconsistent liberalism in general. Parents Sherri and Bill Mason (the former Jewish and the latter white Anglo-Saxon Protestant) have much admitting to do about their readiness to use their own position and clout—the former as head of admissions and the latter as headmaster of a New Hampshire prep school named Hillcrest—to help their son Charlie to gain entrance to Yale after he has failed to obtain early admission.
SpeakEasy Stage Company artistic director Paul Daigneault smoothly captures both the serious implications and the edgy humor of Harmon's savvy dramedy.
The SpeakEasy cast is as sharp as a first-rate college application essay. Maureen Keiller has all of Sherri's high-mindedness judging the catalogue diversity efforts of colleague Roberta, played with convincing deference by Cheryl McMahon. She does equally well capturing Sherri's inner conflict as a parent.
Michael Kaye effectively matches her warring academic and personal concerns as Bill. Marianna Bassham as Sherri's best friend Ginnie—the mother of a bi-racial early admission honoree—nails her hurt as friction about college and privilege threatens their friendship.
Best of all is Boston University student Nathan Malin as Charlie in a terrific SpeakEasy debut. Malin catches Charlie's understandable tenacity about his principles and his parents' questionable ethics. His extended tirade is a showstopper in its natural feeling.
Consider "Admissions" an early admissions candidate for 2019's best list.