See it if A very dark play about illegal immigration & those who take advantage of them. Tremendous acting!
Don't see it if If you prefer a lighter topic, then skip this one. I
See it if You want to feel like you are being told a story by an old friend
Don't see it if You should see it anyway!
See it if This is a superbly crafted one man show. You enjoy plays with a contemporary historical context. You enjoy Irish theatre.
Don't see it if You have to have an elaborate set and costumes and a 20 piece orchestra to make you feel as if you are watching the best of the best theatre
See it if You want to be transported into the struggle of new immigrants to America for their very lives. It’s the story behind the news.
Don't see it if You don’t want your preconceived ideas about immigration and immigrants to be challenged.
See it if Dark and funny about people take advantage of other people. The stage is a bar.
Don't see it if Not light, make you think. One man show.
See it if You enjoy a superbly acted one man show challenging us to consider the many corners we all cut to live the American dream
Don't see it if You don’t like one man shows or storytelling that challenges our premises about right and wrong and fairness towards immigrants
See it if you appreciate a wonderful performance in an intimate space all done in verse with an usual immigrant perspective of surviving in America.
Don't see it if you don't like one-man shows and and don't like listening intently and having to think too hard.
See it if you want a great story that is original and unexpected
Don't see it if you don't like one man shows and characters who are morally ambiguous.
"If 'The Smuggler' aims to be about the price of the American dream and the moral cost of being a successful American citizen, it takes more than a few measures of doggerel from a black-market bartender to do so."
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“Mellamphy is a dynamic presence, shifting easily among male and female roles and a variety of accents, while showing off some damn impressive cocktail-mixing moves.”
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“ ‘The Smuggler’ does raise enough troubling questions about what being an American truly means in this day and age for Finnegan's extended barroom anecdote to be worth seeing and contemplating.”
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“There is much food for thought in ’The Smuggler,’ and much of it leaves a bitter taste. But you'll be glad you partook.”
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“While the verse format is less effective in serious moments—forcing sentences into specific rhythms undermines the emotions of a scene.”
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"Be advised, the drinks, and also the plot, are served with a twist."
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With his throaty Irish accent and magnetic presence, Michael Mellamphy dazzles for 85 minutes as a legal Irish immigrant unemployed bartender who gleefully embraces a life of crime in author Ronán Noone absorbing contemporary solo play. It lives up to its billing as a “thriller in rhyme,” with its punchy rhyming sentences and gritty film noir-style plot twists and turns among corrupt police officers, vicious human traffickers and scheming strivers.
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“The performance is a physical as well as verbal feat. Bagley’s direction of Mellamphy is skillful and well-paced, energizing the 70-minute play.’The Smuggler,’ however, leaves the moral quandary of thievery and smuggling a tangled mess.”
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