Music Director Drew Benware pointed out it is fitting that the play opens on Thursday this week, since it is set in Dublin, Ireland and Monday was St. Patrick’s Day.

Senior Sam Keating, who plays the titular “man of no importance,” said at first, the students weren’t sure if they’d be able to pull off the Irish accent. Now, they’re finding themselves slipping into it in their everyday lives.

“I can’t say the title of the show without an Irish accent,” student actor Lily Zander said.

Students recounted speaking to parents and friends in recent weeks with the lilting musical accent, even letting it fly when they’re expressing frustration over a badminton match.

Alex Evans, Jonah Seleni, Ebin Meissner, Abby Walkow and Clinton Waters sing about “Going Up.” (Enterprise photo — Aaron Marbone)

“A Man of No Importance” is a venture into meta-theater, similar to last year’s “Kiss Me, Kate.”

“This production is a play-within-a-play-within-a-play whereby the St. Imelda’s Players are simultaneously preparing for a production of Oscar Wilde’s ‘Salome’ while also telling the real-life story of Alfie Byrne, the title character,” Benware wrote in the cliffs notes.

Benware said not a lot of high schools do this show. The casting is tight and the material is more mature. He brought the script to students and the administration first to see if this was a story they were interested in and comfortable telling.

“They were hooked right off the bat,” Benware said.

Keating said they’re enjoying working with the more mature themes and connecting with it surprisingly easily.

Lily Zander and Ebin Meissner as Lily Byrne and William Carney sing about “Books.” (Enterprise photo — Aaron Marbone)

“Despite the fact that we’re all teenagers, we’re conveying this story of a 40-year-old man very well. That’s a nice surprise,” Keating said.

“I think they’re grateful to have the opportunity to share real characters in real situations,” Benware said of the students. “They recognize the power of theater to not only entertain, but to reveal truths about ourselves, about our society, and to help us tap into a story of someone else that we might not meet every day.”

He said it is a story about love in many different forms — a man’s love of his community, his love of his theater, society’s love of the church, sibling love and a man coming to terms with loving himself for who he truly is … whether or not people accept that.

“Conversations about (diversity, equity and inclusion) are so important, regardless of the political climate, but particularly now,” Benware said. “It is our primary job as a district to make every student feel valued and welcomed and that they can be their true self.”

He hopes the DEI themes of the show spawn conversations and thought after the show, and encourage theatergoers to develop greater empathy to carry into their everyday lives.

Aislynne McCarty as Mrs. Maureen Curtain sings about raising nine children. (Enterprise photo — Aaron Marbone)

“This is going to leave people going home thinking about things in their own life and what they saw on the stage,” Keating said.

Benware wrote a cliffs notes guide for the show, to put things in context. The show carries many allusions to Irish author and playwright Oscar Wilde. The cliffs notes will be on a green paper tucked inside the program.

Keating had not known much about Oscar Wilde before. Since he was cast, he’s been reading a lot about the writer and enjoying Wilde’s “unmatchable wit.”

Keating said the “man of no importance,” Alfie Byrne, is a humble man who loves being with his friends and making art on stage. A student of the theater for his four years in high school, Keating said he has connected well with this character.

There’s a moment in the play when Alfie’s friends are coming to him with nervous questions about costumes, props and lines and he says “No matter what, a week-and-a-half from now, this will be art.” Keating said when freshmen students come to him with questions about costumes, props or lines, he feels the same way.

Sam Keating and Jack Waters as Alfie Bryne and Robbie Faye share lunch and a chat. (Enterprise photo — Aaron Marbone)

“It makes me feel like I’m the character helping my friends out,” he said. “The love of the art is something that I carry as well.”

He vividly remembers being a freshman actor, seeing this “intangible class of people” guiding him and his friends before they graduated.

“I never really considered that I would make it to be one of the seniors I looked up to as a freshman,” Keating said.

Now he’s the person passing on knowledge to the freshmen, and he said he knows he’s leaving the program in great hands with the next generation. This year’s play has a smaller cast than in the past few years, so he said they’ve become very close.

Alfie is out of place in 1960s Dublin, Keating said. He’s trying to understand himself while feeling like he’s wasted his life as a bus conductor. Doing the same thing every day, he feels trapped. He also feels trapped by society’s expectations of him.

Jonah Seleni and Aislynne McCarty sing about “Going Up.” (Enterprise photo — Aaron Marbone)

The “man of no importance” shares many parallels with his hero Wilde, including their punishment by society for being who they are. At one point, Alfie shouts “I know who you are Queensberry!” referencing the Marquess of Queensberry, who wrote the letter that landed Wilde in jail for the “love that dare not speak its name.”

Wilde was imprisoned for two years in the 1890s after being convicted of sodomy. In that time, homosexuality was illegal in Britain where he was living.

“Also spoken of are symbols by which the homosexual community at the time would identify one another: green carnations and a center part in the hair,” Benware wrote in the cliffs notes.

There are themes of societal change, conformity, resistance to change and belonging. Keating said it’s about a changing of values — the old culture clashing with the new.

“Society was beginning to see a rift between conservatism (represented by Carney, the clergy and the Sodality of the Sacred Heart) and a more socially progressive future,” Benware wrote in the cliffs notes. “The significant influence of the Catholic Church in the lives of these characters cannot be overstated.”

The musical’s creators Stephen Flaherty and Lynn Ahrens are well known for their works “Ragtime,” “Anastasia” and “Seussical.”

Technology teacher Mike Uchal is teaching a theater/tech class for the first time this year. He partnered with director Bonnie Brewer and his students have built the sets and technical elements of the show. Benware said the tech students are just as excited about the show as the actors are and that Uchal told him earlier this week that the theater takes many different talents.

The curtains at the Saranac Lake High School auditorium open on the play-within-a-play-within-a-play on Thursday, Friday and Saturday at 7 p.m. Tickets cost $10 at the door.

(See more photos at https://www.adirondackdailyenterprise.com/news/local-news/2025/03/a-man-of-no-importance/)

Alex Evans as William “Baldy” O’Shea sings about “Going Up.” (Enterprise photo — Aaron Marbone)

Ebin Meissner as William Carney sings about “Going Up.” (Enterprise photo — Aaron Marbone)

Jennifer Giroux, right, as Adele Rice sings about becoming a dreamer and a princess as Sam Keating as Alfie Bryne listens. (Enterprise photo — Aaron Marbone)

Jack Waters as Robbie Faye tries to fix a tire as Sam Keating as Alfie Bryne tries to enlist him in his play. (Enterprise photo — Aaron Marbone)

Sophie Colarusso, Marissa Martin, Abby Walkow and Aislynne McCarty ride the bus, listening to the conductor read Oscar Wilde. (Enterprise photo — Aaron Marbone)

Sam Keating as Alfie Bryne, right, questions who he is as Ebin Meissner, playing Oscar Wilde in Bryne’s imagination doles out advice. (Enterprise photo — Aaron Marbone)