by Sheila Barth
‘Admissions’ – Written by Joshua Harmon. One-act, 1 hour-50-minute play. Presented by SpeakEasy Stage Company at the Boston Center for the Arts, Roberts Studio Theatre, 527 Tremont St., Boston through November 30
The timing for SpeakEasy Stage Company’s tense production of Joshua Harmon’s one-act play Admissions, couldn’t be more perfect. Educators, parents, students undergoing the college admissions process – no-one should miss it. Directed by SpeakEasy’s multiple-award-winning artistic director Paul Daigneault, Admissions delivers realistic, non-stop excitement about a contemporary controversial subject, and lingers long after the terrific cast’s final bows. The winner of the 2018 Drama Desk Award winner for Outstanding Play and Outer Critics Circle Award for Best Play builds non-stop momentum, targeting the fairness-unfairness of colleges’ acceptance of worthy students.
Set in pre-Christmas 2015/post-Easter 2016, Admissions focuses on a private, small, exclusive New Hampshire boarding/prep school that’s trying to attract more students of color, and whether the pendulum of “white privilege” – students having greater advantage of getting into target or reach colleges because they’re white – now swings in the opposite direction, favoring minorities. The subject has exploded in local, national, and international news with famous/celebrity parents bribing and illegally buying their children’s admission to schools of their choice. Last week, actress Felicity Huffman was released from her 14-day prison stay for paying money to a college official to get her daughters accepted. Actress Lori Loughlin’s fate is worse. She’s facing up to 20 years in jail for bribing a college admissions officer and related charges. Let’s face it – unfair practices, especially parents donating large sums of money, often under the table – have gone under the radar many years. Harmon’s gut-wrenching play targets a related issue.
Exclusive prep school admissions officer/headmaster’s wife, Sherri Rosen-Mason, (magnificently played by Boston award-winning actress Maureen Keiller), wants to attract more students of diversity, irrespective of scholarship need. The school’s diversity rate is low – 7 percent – and Sherri is determined to build those numbers by highlighting the school’s diversity, specifically in the school catalogue, for example. During a colorful conversational exchange with Roberta, longtime employee/catalogue creator, (terrific Boston-North Shore favorite Cheryl McMahon), Sherri becomes frustrated and vexed with Roberta, saying she can’t grasp the importance of highlighting visible students of color in catalogue photos.
Sherri’s home life and workplace collide when the family’s longtime friends’ son, Perry, (unseen throughout the play) is accepted to Yale; but Sherri and Bill’s son Charlie isn’t. He’s received a rejection, or deferral letter, instead, crushing his childhood dreams of attending the Ivy League school.Perry’s over-the-top, thrilled mother, Ginnie Peters (the always-terrific Marianna Bassham), unwittingly escalates Charlie’s resentment, bringing cake and wine to celebrate Perry’s acceptance.
Charlie’s embarrassed, enraged and confused. He goes missing for over four hours, and when he comes home, he unleashes a tirade, bemoaning his fate. “I ran into the woods and screamed,” he yells. Point by point, Charlie outlines why he and not Perry deserved to be chosen, insisting that Perry (who’s bi-racial) successfully played the race card. “Life’s not fair,” Charlie screams, and Bill (nicely portrayed by Michael Kaye), agrees, but asks, who faces more unfairness – white privileged Charlie, or disadvantaged kids of color? Standing toe-to-toe, eye-to-eye, father and son’s confrontation is heart-pounding. And so is the rest of “Admissions”. See it. For tickets and information, go to: SpeakEasyStage.com.
