HIGH at the Booth Theatre

(Seen 4/22/11)

When a supposedly realistic play O-Ds on pseudo-realism, you know that your only 'high' will have to come after you leave the theatre. Matthew Lombardo has written a play about a nun who counsels addicts in a church re-hab facility, and her interaction with a very troubled, very confrontational young addict, who is surely destined for a short life.

She is herself a reformed addict, still fighting her own daily battles. In the persona of Kathleen Turner, she is a formidable and sometimes terrifying 'mother figure'.

Everything in this play is so one-dimensional and unbelievable, despite the sketchy back-story of the three principals -- the nun, the priest, and the druggie. Although Lombardo tries to weave a tale of redemption for and by this trio, he never reaches a level of truth in their words or actions.

And Evan Jonigkeit so overplays the addict's physical and mental state, it becomes a monotonous melodrama of surface tension. Director Rob Ruggiero seems to only aid and abet this hyperactivity, further lessening any impact that might lurk below the surface in this play.