Having several of your plays produced in a season is a rare honor — and it usually caps a fruitful, critically acclaimed career, as with the Signature company’s tributes to Edward Albee, Paula Vogel and Arthur Miller.
The Rattlestick Theater’s “Hill Town” cycle is noteworthy, all right, especially since, in this case, the five plays aren’t stretched over a few months but done simultaneously, with distinct directors and casts, at five different venues.
Yet they aren’t by a titan of theater but by Lucy Thurber.
Don’t worry if you haven’t heard of her: Now in her early 40s, this midcareer author has earned mixed to decent reviews for her off-Broadway productions. She’s a dogged, solid writer — but unspectacular. Maybe she just needed more exposure?
Unfortunately, this ambitious undertaking doesn’t make a case for Thurber as an undiscovered talent. Worse, it backfires.
Taken separately, some of the shows have merit. Seeing them all, though, exposes monotonous themes, language and storytelling — the number of surprise visits with awful consequences is just numbing.
To her credit, Thurber is one of the rare contemporary American writers to tackle working-class identity. But as a whole, the “Hill Town” shows are repetitive and limited — surely there are other, more subtle ways to signal poverty than yelling, chain-smoking and swilling Rolling Rocks.
The thread linking the plays is a female character — with varying names and specifics, depending on the show — who tries to escape her hard-knock western Massachusetts roots. Thurber fictionalized some of her own experiences growing up near Northampton, Mass., and coming out as both a writer and a lesbian.
In “Scarcity” (directed by Daniel Talbott at the Cherry Lane Studio), Rachel is 11 and watches her older brother get the chance to attend a private academy.
As Celia, she’s 16 and shacked up with a slightly older dude in “Ashville,” directed by Karen Allen — yes, from “Raiders of the Lost Ark” — at the Cherry Lane. When Celia, talking about “Of Mice and Men,” says that “it’s clear from the beginning something bad is gonna happen,” she might as well describe every single show here.
Fast-forward to “Where We’re Born” (directed by Jackson Gay at the Rattlestick), where Lilly attends a fancy college and visits those she’s left behind.
In “Killers and Other Family” (directed by Caitriona McLaughlin at Axis), unwanted guests unsettle Elizabeth just as she’s finishing her dissertation, while Rachel returns in “Stay” (directed by Gaye Taylor Upchurch at the New Ohio) as a freshly minted professor.
This is the recommended order, but the shows stand alone, and some, like the laughably pretentious “Stay,” can be missed altogether.
But do catch the compellingly written and staged “Killers” and “Where We’re Born.” You’ll save time and money, and won’t realize that the second recycles a sex scene from “Ashville” almost verbatim.
Those two standouts also boast the best acting.
Samantha Soule and Aya Cash throw themselves into the terrifying physicality of “Killers,” while Christopher Abbott’s turn as a rough, sexy, bearded dude in “Where We’re Born” will make you forget his role as Charlie, Marnie’s pushover boyfriend on TV’s “Girls.” These three make Thurber’s gritty world come alive — and you don’t need to commit to five shows for that.