Two surprises propel Off-Broadway season (Journal Times, September 23, 2007)

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Two fresh dramatic voices are being heard Off-Broadway, where the new season has gotten off to an auspicious start.

At the Atlantic Theatre Company on 20th Street, a play called "Scarcity" focuses on two young geniuses who just might break out of a poverty-stricken environment.

The playwright is newcomer Lucy Thurber, and her play stars the dazzling Kristen Johnston (of TV's "Third Rock From the Sun").

At Playwrights Horizons on 42nd Street, the play is "100 Saints You Should Know," about a conflicted priest who is reluctantly pulled back to a mission he thinks he wants to leave behind.

The playwright is Kate Fodor, whose work was developed at Chicago's Steppenwolf Theater Company. Her play stars the luminous Lois Smith ("The Trip to Bountiful").

Both plays contain a strong mother-daughter relationship, a wild teenage boy careening out of control, and a troubled outsider who may save the other characters from disaster.

In "Scarcity," which opened last night, Johnston plays Martha, a woman who is married to a drunk named Herb (Michael T. Weiss) who won't provide for her or her two kids.

She works hard at her unspecified job and comes home to confide in her eerily smart 11-year-old daughter, Rachel (Meredith Brandt). Rachel happens to read Tarot cards when she's not reading Jane Austen.

Her 16-year-old brother is Billy (Jesse Eisenberg), who gets beaten up at school and looks at the richer kids with envy.

Luckily, there is a new teacher at Billy's school who spots his extraordinary intelligence. Ellen (Maggie Kiley), who comes from another world, may rescue Billy from his dead-end prospects. But she is, in some respects, sadly tone-deaf to hurtful manifestations of class that she thoughtlessly perpetuates.

This is played out with tremendous originality under the direction of Jackson Gray (who staged the far less interesting "The Intelligent Design of Jenny Chow," at the Atlantic a few seasons ago).

More than in many Off-Broadway productions, one is aware of each actor's having developed a fully rounded character, even when the person is only partly developed in the script. Todd Weeks and Miriam Shor are particularly notable as relatives of Martha who add to the warring brew, an unending scene of battle that Billy and Rachel must escape.

In "100 Saints You Should Know," the struggling single mom is Theresa (Janel Moloney), who opens the play by scrubbing a toilet bowl. Theresa cleans the church rectory, where she is barely noticed by the resident priest, Matthew (Jeremy Shamos).

Theresa's teenage daughter is Abby (Zoe Kazan), who is a bundle of adolescent rage and battling hormones.

The priest, it turns out, is suddenly banished from his parish for a while because of the suggestion of homosexuality. This opens doors of doubt in Matthew's mind.

He comes home to his mother's house, a couple of hours away. The welcome there will be frosty. Smith plays the mother, Colleen, as an exquisite mixture of hidebound religious principles and maternal love. Her performance alone, as always, makes the play worth seeking out.

The derailing teenage boy in "100 Saints" is Garrett (Will Rogers), whose chance meeting with Abby will lead to an unnerving tragedy.

In this role, Rogers gives a quirky, off-center performance that is far from Smith's quiet, naturalistic take on her character. But it similarly stays in the memory, in a calmly cohesive production directed by Ethan McSweeny (Broadway's "The Best Man").

It is Theresa who follows Matthew in exile, and who unwittingly precipitates the play's denouement.