Theater Review: Admissions

                     Tom Steward, Wendy Waddell, Devin Wade

In the wake of the recent flap over rich parents buying their children’s way into top-tier colleges comes Josh Harmon’s “Admissions,” a biting, sometimes excruciating satire of white privilege in education that will send you out of the theater wanting to sit down with some of your fellow audience mates for a talk about what you’ve just seen. It plays through Feb. 27 at OnStage Playhouse in Chula Vista, under the assured direction of artistic director James P. Darvas.

Bill (Tom Steward) and Sherri (Wendy Waddell) are the headmaster and dean of admissions of a progressive New Hampshire boarding school called Hillcrest. Sherri is proud that she’s increased the diversity of the student body from 6 to 18 percent in the past 15 years. But she is still concerned about appearances.

When we meet Sherri, she is explaining to development director Roberta (Anna Sandor) the importance of diversity in photos the school puts out in its catalog and other school materials. She asks Roberta to take photos that will better illustrate the school’s diversity.

Bill and Sherri have a friend, Ginnie (Holly Stephenson), whose (unseen) son Perry is a student at Hillcrest and buddies with their very bright son Charlie (whose middle name is Luther, for Martin Luther King).

Charlie (Devin Wade) is a senior awaiting his expected acceptance to Yale. But when Charlie doesn’t get that acceptance letter, all hell breaks loose – especially when he finds out that Perry (whose unseen dad is biracial) does get admitted. Charlie storms off to try to make sense of this, leaving Bill and Sherri to try to figure out what they can do to get him into Yale somehow.

The cast of five is, of course, intentionally all white, left to discuss the rightness or wrongness of an educational system that is run the way it is. There is dismissive talk about community college education. The longer it goes on, the edgier the talk becomes, though Harmon has been careful to create human beings, not victims of an idea. But they must discuss questions like who gets to make these decisions, and just what is fairness?

The show is wonderfully presented on an amazing set (by Felipe Ramirez) that manages on that small stage to give us three different looks. The lighting (by Kevin “Blax” Burroughs), costumes (by Pam Stomply-Erikson) and sound (by Estefania Ricalde) are also excellent.

The cast is outstanding, especially Devin Wade’s Charlie, who gets a very long, very fast monologue in which every word is crystal clear. 

“Admissions” manages to be both very funny (especially to me, as I spent 30-some years working in education) and utterly thought-provoking in its exposure of what happens when well-meaning parents who “should” get what they want don’t. If you’re looking for unusual theater, give “Admissions” a try.