It would be hard to argue that the premiere of Lucy Thurber's Scarcity at Atlantic Theater Company isn't topical. With America's rural communities currently experiencing a critical mass exodus of educated youth -- known as "rural flight" -- Thurber's explosive family drama about a brother and sister longing to escape poverty in small-town Massachusetts certainly is relevant.

Unfortunately, it's also predicable; while the topic may be timely, Thurber's gifted-boy-trying-to-escape-small-town story line sadly has very little to say that's actually new. Martha (3rd Rock From the Sun's Kristen Johnston) is the frazzled matriarch of her low-income family, working 50 hours a week at her dead-end job while her 16-year-old son, Billy (The Squid and the Whale's Jesse Eisenberg), and precocious 11-year-old daughter, Rachel (Meredith Brandt), essentially raise themselves. Faced with an alcoholic, out-of-work father and a dependency on food stamps, Billy plans his escape out of his impoverished home and into an exclusive prep school.

Combining rough-and-tumble naturalism with violent outbursts worthy of Cops reruns, Scarcity presents characters at their breaking points. Like a trailer-park Three Sisters, Thurber's well-drawn characters may dream of getting to the big city but are often unwilling or unable to change their situations. Though it's thankfully injected with Thurber's charmingly offbeat humor -- delivered with deadpan hilarity by the young Brandt -- Scarcity never offers any real insights, opting instead for clichés about low-income America.

Director Jackson Gay keeps the production reined in -- perhaps a bit too tightly -- and, like Thurber, goes for easy choices, such as momentum-crippling blackouts. And though Scarcity boasts an impressive cast, the performances are disappointingly spotty. Still, Johnston is an appropriately earthy and charming Martha, while Michael T. Weiss brings a surprising likability to Herb, Billy's drunken father. But for all its engaging moments, Scarcity remains a dissatisfying exercise in which opportunities for real depth are a bit, well, scarce.