Admissions by Joshua Harmon, 3f, 2m
Sherri Rosen-Mason is head of the admissions department at a New England prep school, fighting to diversify the student body. Alongside her husband, the school’s headmaster, they’ve largely succeeded in bringing a stodgy institution into the twenty-first century. But when their only son sets his sights on an Ivy League university, personal ambition collides with progressive values, with convulsive results. A no-holds-barred look at privilege, power, and the perils of hypocrisy.
Labels: contemporary, drama, small cast
posted by Larisa at 10:09 AM
7 Comments:
I liked a lot about this play, it was a good read. I also think it would work on our stage and with our artists and audiences.
My biggest concern is that I wish it were either funnier or more serious. A lot of the long rants seem to be trying to be completely over-the-top satire, but they don't quite get there. Unfortunately, I worked in higher ed for too long and heard too many 18-year-old-white boys say these exact same things - this is not hyperbolic at all, very realistic. The parents' extreme reactions make them into the villains too soon. I feel weird about that - but maybe that was the point?
Complex, clever, but also fairly heavy-handed.
I think Thanksgiving Play does a better job and "liberal white people working through race stuff" as satire.
this play has all the weaknesses of a typical "edu-tainment" piece - stereotypical characters who say various things because they represent a point of view instead of being a real character we can bond with - even though Perfect Arrangement has weaknesses, it did a great job of doing what this play does not - it gave the audience wonderful people to care about and then say "well, here's the issue..." and suddenly an intellectual or political argument becomes something much greater and also much better storytelling. I kept thinking "why not a play about the friendship of the two boys? So we come to know them and what they mean to one another." Then Yale becomes a flashpoint for discussion because we care about those two young men. But that is not the play that is written and I think this clunky play just is not a well enough crafted piece of theatre.
I felt the story line to be weak. There wasn't enough tension to make good theater. There were way too many preachy monologues and not enough action. I, personally, felt uncomfortable with the way they played down community college and its dead-end future.
I have worked in Higher Ed for over 25 years and 8 of those were directly with First Year programs. I have heard the statements as well and had better discussions with the students than occur in this play. I do not like it and would not like to see it. Pass from me.
It isn't a great script and with the content, it is likely to upset a number of people. With recent news about the Supreme Court and its possible decisions on Affirmative Action, I thought it was worth the read.
Okay, I must confess that after reading all of the comments, I have now given myself permission to not read this one. Thank you fellow bloggers!
I must have been in a great mood reading all of these. I enjoyed reading this. I thought it has thought provoking topics. My biggest reason for saying no is it is a play about racism through an exclusively white lens - even though it has characters of color in the story. And - it kind of ends up re-enforcing a belief that the Black kid only got into Yale because he was Black and the girl only got to be editor because she was a girl.
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