The Sparrow

For a play that illuminates the perils of high school popularity, The Sparrow is certainly eager to please. This story of a small Midwestern hamlet haunted by the loss of an entire class (they were killed when a train hit their school bus) and the dark telekinetic teenage girl who caused it (lovely, lanky Defrin) is probably the House’s most aesthetically satisfying show to date. Allen and his cadre of designers integrate themselves here and take a collective step up. Collette Pollard’s sepia skies are a striking backdrop for Ana Kuzmanic’s catalog-perfect costumes and Ben Wilhelm’s dusky lighting scheme, while Kevin O’Donnell has cooked up a synth-pop dance score that will probably go directly into your iTunes.

But the tragedy of the The Sparrow is its own lack of real tragedy. Too closely related to Russell Banks’s beautiful The Sweet Hereafter to ignore, the play has a sorrowful antecedent, but can’t offer its own sense of loss. With only the sketchiest backstory, Mathews and Minton’s gloss on rural community life seems more influenced by Smallville than the actual sticks. And a story about a hottie teacher who becomes involved with his female students shoots for juicy moral ambiguity but is just morally confused. Still, Cliff Chamberlain’s 1.21 gigawatts of charisma in that role demand attention, and vital Kat McDonnell as a grieving mother gives the show a conscience it wouldn’t have otherwise. From a consumer reports perspective, they’re enough to recommend it. But the sugar rush you’ll get echoes the play’s self-professed “cool” teacher; his class might be awesome, but when it’s over, you realize you didn’t learn much.—Christopher Piatt