There’s only one reason audiences are going to head to the Royal Alexandra Theatre to watch High, and thats to see Kathleen Turner. Which is just as well, really, since the story itself is a pretty depressing affair. 

Turner puts in a fine perfomance as Sister Jamison Connelly, a hard-talking, cussin’, recovering-alcoholic-turned-nun on a mission to save other addicts from themselves. Armed only with a set of rosary beads and an unshakeable belief in miracles, she is coerced by her boss (Father Michael DelPapp, played in trendy-young-priest style by Tim Altmeyer) into taking on the case of Cody Randall (Evan Jonigkeit), a teenage hustler, meth addict and general bad piece of work. 

With a cast of just three and a stark set comprising a few sticks of office furniture, High leans heavily on playwright Matthew Lombardo’s script, which sadly is rather cliché-laden. There’s more than a whiff of made-for-TV drama about the three characters, who spend a lot of time shouting and slamming one of the set’s two doors as they wrestle with demons from their past.

Although lightened with zippy one-liners, which Turner delivers in superb deadpan fashion, the play seems determined to cram all of humanity’s darker traits into its two hours on stage, taking in rape, addiction, prostitution, child abuse, more rape and murder. There’s also a heavy emphasis on the power of the Catholic faith to heal addiction. While Turner's Connelly is a modern nun who wears a Jesus badge instead of a habit, she pins her faith to her sleeve and rarely misses an opportunity to throw out a Hail Mary or Our Father, which gets a little tiring by the second half.

With a more delicate touch, High could have been an interesting — if devastating — look at the fraught relationships between faith and recovery, human frailty and human compassion. Instead, it smothers a delicate subject under a heavy hand.

High, Royal Alexandra Theatre, 260 King St. W., 416-872-1212. To May 13.