Interludes

VIEWPOINTS – Views of the American immigrant experience: Deepa Purohit’s ELYRIA and Ronán Noone’s THE SMUGGLER

• By drediman
• February 28, 2023
• No Comments

Currently on the boards are a pair of Off-Broadway plays that together constitute an interesting examination of the American immigrant experience. Read on for my thoughts.

ELYRIA
Atlantic Theater Company at the Linda Gross Theater
Through March 19

First up is Atlantic Theater Company’s production of Deepa Purohit’s new play Elyria (RECOMMENDED), which opened last night at the Linda Gross Theater. The work tells the story of how a secret pact made between two Indian women from opposite sides of the track comes back to haunt them as they respectively endeavor to establish lives in America. Even if Purohit’s play ultimately registers more as melodrama than anything approaching Shakespearean (the playwright ambitiously attempts to simultaneously go down multiple narrative paths, dampening the piece’s overall dramatic impact), it works effectively in its depiction of the painful process of immigrating to this country, particularly for Asians of a certain age. Thankfully, the all-Asian cast give authentic, deeply invested performances that vividly highlight the tension between holding on to one’s Indian heritage and rigid points of view and evolving into a new kind of social and familial existence. The in-the-round production has been directed with audience immersion in mind by Awoye Timpo, who smartly takes directorial cues from the musical Follies, particularly with respect to ghostly manifestations of the characters’ ever-present pasts.

THE SMUGGLER
Irish Repertory Theatre
Through March 12

Then there’s Ronán Noone’s The Smuggler (RECOMMENDED), which continues its extended run at Irish Repertory Theatre’s cozy studio space as part of the Origin Theatre’s 1st Irish Festival. The first thing you’ll notice about the show is that it’s written completely in verse. The second is that it’s performed by a single performer, who plays all of the characters in the story. Thankfully, actor Michael Mellamphy is a complete natural onstage, drawing the audience in with his immense charisma and easy way with conveying a yarn. As such, the fact that the play is written in rhyme falls by the wayside to the crux of the storytelling. If anything, the rhyming couplets only amplify the likability of the story’s main character, an Irish immigrant who is forced to engage in sketchy activities when circumstances deem it necessary for survival. In The Smuggler, Noone seems to be making the case that it takes a certain kind of ruthlessness in order to succeed in this country as an immigrant. The Irish Rep production has been cleverly directed by Conor Bagley, who – together with Mellamphy – allows the play to unfold in an uncommonly fulsome and dramatically satisfying way way, especially for a one man show.