REVIEW: IVY DAY by Arianna Muñoz at The Hope Theatre, 18 - 22 August 2025
'covers immense ground incisively and rapidly as the show crescendos to its finale' ★★★★ ½
To the victors go the spoils. That is what the teenagers in Arianna Munoz’s play about Ivy League school acceptance seem to think. The play takes place on the day in March when 8 Ivy League schools (Brown, Columbia, Cornell, Dartmouth, Harvard, the University of Pennsylvania, Princeton, and Yale) inform applicants of who has been accepted (or not) to their highly exclusive schools, at the same time. The students of St Luke’s College Prep, a high school in Texas, are well aware of the statistics: 350,000 students apply for a place but only 21,000 are accepted (a 6% rate).
These universities become a brand of their own, with their scholarships, sports, sororities. A straight-forward staging with table and chair, and almost symbolically, the colourful pennants of American universities are hung on the wall: 3 Ivy schools (looming large), others not (smaller, almost illegible). The set is secondary, though, because it is the tension of the people in the room that churns harder as time gets closer to the hour of acceptance.
At the centre of the story is Andrea (Andy) Martinez, convincingly played by Hanna Balogun, whose immigrant father works two jobs for her to attend St Luke’s in the hopes of her eventually walking the hallowed halls of Harvard. She also has worked hard and feels the pressure to achieve these lofty goals. Even her scholarship to the illustrious NYU (New York University) doesn’t soften this.
Andy’s best friend Hailey, playfully portrayed by Lola Gordine, arrives, and we learn about her level-headed views. Sporting her new university’s sweatshirt, Kenyon represents a good university program for creative writing not generally accepted as being worthy by this ambitious crew. As others arrive, the space becomes squeezed with personalities. Rachel, smoothly and cagily approached by Bella Tran, enters with her athlete boyfriend Lee (Victor Daniels), who is aiming for a shot at Princeton. Lee is soft-spoken, almost shy, until he finds his voice facing off against Berni (Marques Monteiro), the wealthy international student, who seems more confident about entry to the ivy schools because of his large future tuition payments. As the group decides not to talk about the present anxious moment, and try to bring the teenage banter to the forefront, they succumb once again to the day’s concerns. Finally, Jack's (Ryan Keys) entrance accentuates the pressure with his smarmy attitude as a ‘legacy candidate’ (his parents and previous generations attended Harvard, giving him a higher chance of entry). The group’s electric dialogue becomes even more pacy and the audience is riveted.
I sometimes wondered if a UK audience could fully understand the terminology (such as College Board, SATs, and Common App) or the stakes at play, but the ensemble really put forth superb energy to show how much the decisions mattered to them, while also bringing forth the identity politics that play into the consummation of Ivy Day. In the end, this piece confronts more than this one day. It covers immense ground incisively and rapidly as the show crescendos to its finale. Ironically, in today’s American political climate, the Ivy schools are facing their own pressure cooker and the students may be the only ones to decide their future.
Photography credit: Kinga Anna Dulka (@kingadulka.photo on Instagram)
IVY DAY at The Hope Theatre, part of Camden Fringe
Written by Arianna Muñoz
Performed by Hannah Balogun, Victor Daniels, Lola Gordine, Ryan Keys, Marques Monteiro, Bella Tran
Directed by Arianna Munoz
Assistant Director: Molly Byrne
Lighting Director: Evan Woods
Instagram: ivyday.theplay
