by Tony Annicone
GAMM Theatre’s 35th season continues with their first show of 2020 which is the off-Broadway hit play “Admissions” by Joshua Harmon. He won the 2018 Drama Desk and Outer Critics Circle Awards for best play. His other plays are “Significant Other” and “Bad Jews.” Harmon’s newest comedy/drama explores white privilege in attending prestigious institutions of higher learning. It could reflect as a show torn from the headlines of the current college admissions scandals of 2019, but was actually written before it took place. In this piece, set just before Christmas of 2015 to Easter of 2016, Sherri, the mother, is the head of an admissions department at Hillcrest, a New England prep school in New Hampshire who wants to diversify the student body. Her husband is the school’s headmaster and they have been quite successful with her initiatives. However when their son, Charlie wants to attend an Ivy League university, Yale University, their progressive values and ideas collide with their own self-interests with dramatic and shocking results that leave the audience on the edge of their seats. Bryn Boice casts these five roles splendidly and elicits strong performances from each of them. The kitchen set with staircase to a second floor is hidden by a brick wall that ascends when the scene changes from the school to the home is designed by Patrick Lynch. It is outstanding as are the lovely costumes by Amanda Downing Carney.
Bryn gives each of the performers their chance to shine in this show. Leading this cast is Deb Martin as Sherri. She never leaves the stage, walking from one scene to the other with a slight costume adjustment or hair style change. Deb runs the gamut of emotions in this enormous role in this hour and forty minute one act show. She reprimands Roberta who is in charge of the Hillcrest brochure for not including photos of diverse students and later scolds her for having photos of all minorities in it. These scenes with Roberta are very comic in nature as are the first couple of scenes with her friend, Ginnie – until her biracial son, Perry is accepted at Yale while Charlie has deferred status. In this particular scene, Bryn has Deb slicing vegetables for tacos while she tries to navigate the waters between her son and her friend.
This is where things take a dramatic turn with recriminations and tense, hard feelings. Deb’s tender moments with her son are heartwarming and poignant while her outrage and argument scenes with him and her husband crackle with electricity. Jacob Osborne makes a magnificent debut performance as Charlie as he captures the hurt feelings of being passed over at being accepted outright at Yale. He captures the angst of a teenager as he rails against his parents promoting diversity in a bit of a racist, chauvinistic yet comic rant while claiming that their own white son has been shunned by the university. Jacob’s monologue is phenomenal and he receives thunderous applause at the end of it. His later confrontation with his mother back in her office at his final decision on what he’s doing after graduation is another feather in his cap. Another dramatic moment is the final confrontation which becomes a gut wrenching scene with his parents at the end of the show. The electricity and power in this scene is breathtaking. However art doesn’t repeat itself in real life because not only is Jacob, a graduate of Yale University but he’s also a graduate of the British American Drama Academy. His theatrical training from both places shine through in his debut performance at Gamm.
Jim O’Brien plays Bill, the patient understanding father who has a
sweet tooth but eventually erupts at his son’s foolish behavior. The first quip
he makes after Charlie’s long rant is “My God, we have raised a
Republican” which wins much laughter. However it is his explosive
confrontation with Charlie near the end of the show that rivets the audience to
their seats with the tense exchange which is only stopped by Sherri’s strong
declaration of “Enough” when father and son retreat to neutral
corners. Wendy Overly displays her comedic prowess in the role of Roberta whose
family has been involved at Hillcrest for 150 years. Roberta first makes the
school’s brochure with all white students and teachers and then on her second
attempt uses only ethnic students and teachers. Her inappropriate comment about
searching classes, sports games and such, is “I feel like David Duke
searching for blacks everywhere” which is comic as well as cringe worthy.
Roberta seems to be unaware that her remarks could be also viewed as racist and
narrow-minded in tone but the comedy comes through nonetheless. Karen
Carpenter plays Ginnie who is comical in her first two scenes when she brings a
carrot cake to Charlie at his acceptance to Yale in the first and when she
brings cookies in the second when he disappears from her son, Perry’s life at
his deferral from Yale. In the latter scene is where the character becomes more
dramatic. It is where she confronts Sherri when she doesn’t defend Perry from
Charlie’s insinuations of race being the deciding factor in Perry’s acceptance
at Yale. Karen handles the transition wonderfully. So for a contemporary show
that deals with the privilege versus race story told before the admission
scandals of 2019, be sure to catch “Admissions” at Gamm Theatre. It
is an excellently directed and acted show that will keep your interest from
start to finish as it displays the inhumanity conveyed in private settings that
spill over to public settings due to the chaotic situations facing the country
these days.
ADMISSIONS (16 January to 9 February)
GAMM Theatre, 1245 Jefferson Boulevard, Warwick, RI
1(401)723-4266 or www.gammtheatre.org
