The Gamm Theatre opened its 42nd season with a one-man-tour-de-force, Ronan Noone's "The Smuggler" starring the Gamm's two decade long Artistic Director and actor Tony Estrella.
Set in a fictional island town called Amity, Massachusetts, and loosely based on Martha's Vineyard where Noone and his family immigrated to more than 30 years ago. "The Smuggler" is the story of a recent Irish Immigrant Tim Finnegan, played so incredibly by Estrella that you are often wondering how one person can remember all these lines and act them out with such great personality throughout- trying to make due for his wife and young child while also avoiding the pitfalls(or not) that befall many immigrants who come to this country and the mistakes made along the way.
Finnegan, in completely rhymed verse throughout, weaves a masterful tale of triumph and tragedy, love and loss in this touching and at times gut-wrenching 80-minute performance. Noone, who also directed his own play-his first at the Gamm- reflected on his family first arriving to Ellis Island 30 years ago and seeing a story on a wall there that said "Before I came to America, I thought the streets were paved in gold. When I came here I realized three things: The streets were not paved in gold, the streets were not paved, and that I was expected to pave them." While this above quote was also used in the play, Noone said it was a phrase that he bottled up within him like so many great playwrights do, waiting for the perfect time to use them. "The Smuggler" was that chance.
Winner of the Best Playwright Award at the 1st Irish Festival of New York in 2019, and premiering at the Boston Playwrights' Theatre that same year, it would later have an acclaimed run at the Irish Repertory Theatre in New York in 2023. "The Smuggler" was also published as a 112-page paperback book in late 2021.
With all the talk of immigration and ICE each and every day now, which the play touches on a number of times throughout, "The Smuggler" shows you the other side of the story, the wonderful people who come here in search of the American Dream and a better life for them and their family, something, sadly, that they don't always find.
Estrella is the perfect match for this most difficult role, someone able to change a personality on a dime, going from a humble husband and father to a comedian and writer to a darker side forced out with the struggles of being an immigrant and finding any path that helps his family get by.
"The Smuggler" is an ultra-modern tale that will make you think more about the immigrant's plight then maybe you ever have before-and that's a really good thing-but if anything, it will make you appreciate the incredible writing and acting that makes this rare production go off without a hitch. In the play, Finnegan utters "Everywhere, opportunity knocks" and while that may be true, he learns the hard way that those streets never were made of gold and that everything you want, you have to work hard at to get, a lesson, perhaps, for all of us. Nothing good comes easy, as they say, and Finnegan knows that better than anyone. It's what you do-or maybe don't do- to get to that point that matters most.
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