“Admissions,” which opened last night at Riverwalk, is a cleverly-titled and layered play by Joshua Harmon which not only explores the mechanics and consequences of higher-education administrative policies meant to achieve a diverse student body, but also reveals how the administrators of those policies feel about them, each other, and their own families and friends.
The school in question is Hillcrest prep school in New Hampshire, where the administrators Sherri and Bill have been working for years to get the enrollment up to 20% non-white, but at the same time have been working to get their multi-talented son Charlie into a prestigious legacy school, particularly Yale. This creates obvious conflicts.
While it would be novel to get an audience to embrace a statistic as the protagonist, that just will never happen; so the default protagonist is the 17-year-old Charlie and what’s to become of him when he disagrees with the worldview of his parents.
Heath Sartorius rarely disappoints his audience; and as Charlie he has several powerful scenes, never more transcendent than in the middle of the play when he gets an e-mail from Yale. His extended monologue is worth the price of admission alone.
As his parents, Emily Clark and Jeff Kennedy try to talk reason to the teenager (!), not always successfully but nevertheless with the strength and sincerity of their lifelong convictions.
Colleen Bethea provides able support as the longtime family friend who just happens to have a biracial son at the school; and Jane Zussman is perfect as the career staffer who’s trying to produce a new admissions catalog but can’t quite get the message on what the pictures within it should look like.
Director Bob Robinson can indeed be proud of this seamlessly acted, well-produced ensemble show, including the comfy, tweedy sets by Leroy Cupp with set dressing and scenography by Ric Sadler, props by Bernie Lucas and lighting by Ted Daniel.
This award-winning script will make you think much about the topics therein and is well worth a visit to Riverwalk, but note – the play runs one hour and 45 minutes with NO intermission.
Admissions runs through September 24. Tickets are general admission and available at the door while they last. Reservations assure admission; arrive early for choice of seats. 517-482-5700 http://www.riverwalktheatre.com