Perhaps, when they (whoever “they” are) look back in 50 years, today’s playwriting will make sense, and playwrights like Sarah Ruhl and Sheila Callaghan will be lauded as the Tennessee Williams and Arthur Millers of their era, and I’ll be just another example of a critic who didn’t recognize that these women are ahead of their time.

Until then, though, I will remain puzzled as to the merits of this trend of poetic playwriting.

What has provoked my ire this time? The production of Sheila Callaghan’s “Everything You Touch,” currently playing at the Theatre @ Boston Court, a co-production with the New York-based Rattlestick Playwrights Theater (who mounted last year’s stunning “Slipping”). The play follows a woman, Jess (Kirsten Vangsness) who is forced to come to terms with her relationships with herself, her dying, fashion-obsessed mother, and her long-dead father. The plays meanders from the 1970s to the present, accompanied by a chorus of waif-like models and furniture made out of dismembered mannequins.

Callaghan’s writing is strongest in the play’s more realistic moments. Under Jessica Kubzansky’s direction, Vangsness (who plays Garcia on "Criminal Minds") delivers Jess’ wry asides with aplomb, and her banter with Tyler Pierce’s Victor and Lewis (Arthur Keng), her only real friend, keeps the play zipping along. Likewise, the dynamics between Victor, Esme (Kate Maher), and Louella (Amy French) let the past be as interesting as the present.

SEE ALSO: Theater Review: 'Slipping' By Rattlestick Playwrights Theater

But whenever the language takes a turn for the poetic—yikes. It just doesn’t work. I’ve seen this before in quite a few productions (Callaghan’s “Crumble (Lay Me Down, Justin Timberlake),” Ruhl’s “Eurydice,” “Passion Play,” and “Dead Man’s Cell Phone”). I assumed that my lack of understanding was due to some shortcoming in the production, not in the play. But while all five of those productions had their shortcomings, I’m now convinced that the bigger problem is with the writing. It just doesn’t work. Poetry is delightful to read, and spoken-word poetry can be incredibly powerful. But when a play switches back and forth from realistic language to these heightened moments, the latter feels cheapened, and the outcome of this experimental brand of theater is an experiment gone decidedly wrong.

I do have to give Rattlestick credit for one thing, though. They really do go balls to the wall with every production they do. Whether I love it (as with “Slipping,” and, to a lesser extent, “Asuncion,”) or hate it (like the controversial “3C”), they commit fully. The team at Boston Court has committed as well, and John Zalewski’s original music and sound design work particularly well to bring the script to life.

Perhaps, though, this is a script better left on the page, better appreciated when it’s read than when it’s staged.

“Everything You Touch” plays at the Theatre @ Boston Court (70 N. Mentor Ave., Pasadena) through May 11. Tickets are $34. More information can be found at BostonCourt.com.

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