September 21, 2007

Off-Broadway's Atlantic Theater Company is the troupe that spawned the Broadway hit "Spring Awakening," a musical about troubled teens in 19th century Germany. Thursday the company kicked off its fall season with a new work which also takes a look at teenage angst. NY1's Roma Torre filed the following review of "Scarcity."

Lucy Thurber's new play "Scarcity" wants to be many things: a character study, a sitcom, a kitchen-sink drama, and even soap opera, yet despite a game effort from its talented company, "Scarcity" is scarcely ready for primetime. It's a play that over reaches and under achieves.

Set in a depressed rural town in western Massachusetts, we meet a highly dysfunctional family consisting of hopeless, irresponsible parents Martha and Herb, and their two gifted children, Billy, 16, and his sister Rachel, 11.

The premise is a good one even though the execution falls short. Herb is an out-of-work drunk with more than a passing interest in his daughter's pre-pubescent body. Living off Martha's store clerk wages, their lives seem all but lost in a dead-end cycle of food stamps and foolish choices.

The dynamic is somewhat clichéd as the kids end up parenting their pathetic parents.

Hope comes in the form of a teacher who recognizes Billy's potential and aims to help him get out of his stifling environment. But the parents object, sensing that the teacher's interest in Billy is not entirely selfless.

The problem with the play is the way that playwright Thurber draws each character in bold outlines. Almost cartoony, everything seems to be played in a hyper reality - it's loud and laden with expletives. While it certainly gets your attention, it doesn't ring true to life.

There's a disconnect between who these people are and what they're doing. The conflicts seem contrived and some of the more animated scenes are so incredibly over the top, they become unintentionally funny.

Because the play is equal parts comedy and tragedy, the performances are a jarring variety of styles. Director Jackson Gay seems to be drawing on the works of Albee and Shepherd for inspiration, but to no avail.

Still there are moments. Kristen Johnston, always a pleasure to watch, barrels through the play like a trucker stuck in high gear. Michael T. Weiss is well cast as a loser who hasn't yet lost his charisma. Jesse Eisenberg makes Billy a jittery mass of teen angst and, 11-year-old Meredith Brandt holds her own impressively with the finesse and poise of a star in the making.

"Scarcity" can also be read as Scar City, which applies equally well to the story of a family damaged by ignorance and poverty. Unfortunately, once you get beneath the scars, there's not much else to care about.