The Attempters

Shawn Pfautsch authored the House’s last really good play, 2006’s meaty Hatfield & McCoy. That makes Pfautsch’s latest, another adolescent trifle in the twee, suburban vein of last year’s The Sparrow, an even greater disappointment. As the story of teenager Danny Hackles, his get-famous-quick schemes and his doofusy crush on a girl, The Attempters manages to highlight all of the House’s weaknesses and very few of its strengths.

Danny (Mathews) is a fame-hungry 17-year-old obsessed with getting notoriety by inventing his own language. Or becoming a rock star. Or, if that doesn’t work out, running for city council. The only clue we’re given as to what fuels Danny’s drive is that he’s apparently deeply damaged by his parents’ divorce a dozen years earlier. And that seems symptomatic of the House worldview: Having divorced parents and a case of puppy love are the worst traumas this kid can imagine. Unlike any teenagers we know, Danny and his friends live in a world scrubbed clean of sex and drugs (but not rock & roll, although here “Danny Boy” is a rock song); these teens act more like they’re seven than 17. It’s difficult to tell what decade it’s even meant to be, but our money’s on whatever year in which Archie Comics is set.

The timing of Mashburn’s visually inert direction seems off throughout, and Mathews simply isn’t able to imbue Danny with the kind of charm and charisma the character needs. The rock songs and multimedia elements sprinkled throughout feel like obligatory ingredients of a House show, but Lucas Merino’s witty film segment is more engaging than anything that happens live. Too bad Pfautsch’s script calls for the film to be turned off midway—it told a stronger story in under five minutes than the rest of The Attempters does in two hours.