“The Smuggler, “ Irish-American playwright Ronán Noone’s one-person “Thriller in Rhyme,” will finish up a brief run at Bloom’s Tavern, 208 East 58th St., Manhattan, on this Friday and Saturday night, Sept. 27 and 28, at 7 p.m. It’s about Irish immigrant Tim Finnegan (Michael Mellamphy) doing all he can to “maintain his family” on an affluent Massachusetts summer island retreat. The paper-thin tranquility is rocked in the aftermath of a tragedy that pits the locals against immigrant laborers. It is directed by Conor Bagley and produced by Jessica M. DeLucia.
“The Smuggler,” which won Noone “Best Play” when it debuted at Origin Theatre Company’s 1st Irish Theatre Festival awards in 2018, with Mellamphy performing as Finnegan, has had numerous productions across the U.S., including a run at 1st Irish in 2023 when the Irish Repertory Theatre stage the production directed by Bagley which garnered rave reviews, including one in which Ken Marks of The New Yorker magazine said, “a terrific, one man, one act play,” in which “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.”
Mellamphy noted “having spent 27 years in the bar business, many of the skills I learned behind bars were deftly incorporated by our director, Conor Bagley, for our Irish Rep production. It just made sense when Jessica suggested incorporating a specialty cocktail to help enhance the experience of the show.”
Tickets are available by going to https://TheSmugglerBlooms.eventbrite.com.
