Actress Alex Kingston says the US college admissions scandal shows how “timely” her new play is.
The former ER star plays a white liberal school admissions chief campaigning to make its intake more diverse who faces a dilemma when her son loses out on a college place to his mixed race friend.
She faced the critics at press night for Admissions yesterday, at Trafalgar Studios in the West End, as the news broke that Desperate Housewives actress Felicity Huffman was one of almost 50 wealthy Americans accused of buying their children’s way into top universities.
Kingston said the similarities with the themes of white privilege and buying advantage in Joshua Harmon’s Admissions were “quite extraordinary”. She said: “It’s incredibly timely, Josh took 10 years to write the play and it was performed a year ago in New York but I think it’s been brewing. The debate has been brewing and people actually do need to talk.”
Her co-star Sarah Hadland, who plays her best friend and the mother of the successful student, said she hoped audiences would find their own views being challenged.
She said that “you might think you’ll do one thing but when you’re in that situation and it’s your child you might not”.
Kingston said the show would resonate with London audiences despite the references to Ivy League Schools and the Republican Party.
She said: “I think the problem is universal so even though the play is set in America I think the themes that are addressed are absolutely current here as well.”
