Photo Credit: Carol Rosegg
Review by Brad Balfour
Play: The Smuggler: A Thriller in Rhyme
Location: W. Scott McLucas Studio Theatre
Writer: Ronán Noone
Director: Conor Bagley
Cast: Michael Mellamphy
January 18 – March 12, 2023
Irish Repertory Theatre
132 West 22nd Street
New York, NY 10011
For more info go to: https://irishrep.org
Now in its 20th anniversary season, Origin 1st Irish 2023 was curated by Michael “Mick” Mellamphy, Origin Theater’s artistic director since 2021. The third 1st Irish Festival in a row curated by Mellamphy and produced by Origin Theatre Company, also included two productions held at the Irish Repertory Theatre.
But Mick’s real origins (ha ha) are through his career as an Irish thespian. That is, as an actor. Almost as if he wanted to prove he hasn’t lost his chops, he took on the challenge of grappling with launching the Off-Broadway premiere of “The Smuggler” — writer Ronan Noone’s absurd examination of an Irish immigrant bartender/writer gone awry — all in rhyming verse. Noone’s hotly anticipated off-Broadway debut of his Origin’s 1st Irish 2019 hit opened at The Irish Rep for previews on January 18th and officially on the 26th. There was no luck trying to smuggle out a ticket —it has completely sold out since previews — but there might be a chance to grab one since the run was extended to March 12th, 2023.
In this solo performance, Mellamphy draws on elements of his own experience to truly animate Irish immigrant Tim Finnegan who arrives in a small Massachusetts town to pursue his version of the American dream. Trying to make it as a writer on Amity, this affluent summer colony, the beefy bartender loses his job and gets drawn into the dark underbelly of the island.
Tensions flare between the migrant and local communities after a fatal car crash. Finnegan loses his mixologist job, When he gets drawn into the dark underbelly of the island as a people smuggler and thief. “The Smuggler”examines how far will one go to re-establish his self-respect after sinking far from his base as a family man and asks the question, “What does it mean to be an American?” Along the way he gets into fights, rips people off and is something of a reprobate. Though it might take great fodder for some future writing project, he’s seems less the writer and more the criminal.
For seasoned actor Mellamphy, it means showing all the permutations of this complicated character — expressing both his moments of charm and of his rapscallion ways. All this is done while sustaining a fast-paced 80+ minutes of performance, wending his way through the rhyming text via a David Mamet styled storytelling.
Though set in a basic Irish bar-like setting in all it’s run down glory, the experience is enhanced by having some audience members sit at tables on the stage and even getting served faux alcoholic beverages. Menus get passed some with an actual note from Mellamphy while he occasionally offers a comment or a wink and a nod to appropriate folks from the audience.
Though the show doesn’t pretend to make a profound statement about the immigrant experience or the slippery slope of going from family man to manhandling lawbreaker, it does offer a thoroughly entertaining escape from mundane reality — and demonstrates how a skillful actor can take an audience swayed, by a faux alcoholic haze, on a rollicking romp.