In 2008, 17 students at Gloucester High School in Massachusetts became pregnant at the same time, leading to speculation that some of the teens had made a “pregnancy pact.” The psychology of that incident became the starting point for Kirsten Greenidge’s poetic and mostly successful play, Milk Like Sugar, now receiving its world premiere production at the La Jolla Playhouse.

In Ms. Greenidge’s version, three friends, Talisha (Cherise Boothe), Annie (Angela Lewis), and Margie (Nikiya Mathis) make the pact. Margie is already pregnant by her boyfriend, and Talisha (or “T”, as she keeps insisting, to no effect, that she now wants to be called) is envious of the attention that Margie is starting to receive as a result, and Annie is mostly along for the ride. It is Annie who almost immediately has doubts about her decision, however, and the plot’s focus quickly hones in on her.

Like her friends, Annie feels as though she has reached a dead end. High school is not satisfying, her brothers are never at home, her mother works nights and pays mostly negative attention to Annie when the two of them are together. Her friends are her support, but Annie isn’t sure she can trust them completely. Talisha bullies Keera (Adrienne C. Moore), a plain and very religious classmate, and Margie can only think about the gifts she will receive when she has the baby.

Annie has just turned sixteen and would like a special gift, too. Her mother shows no interest in buying her one, so she decides to spend money she’s saved on a tattoo. Antwoine (LeRoy McClain), the tattoo artist, turns out to be sexy and solicitous, and Annie keeps going back to him for more ink (and more emotional support) as the story progresses.

The problem with getting pregnant, though, is finding a man for assistance. Annie has picked out Malik (J. Mallory-McCree), a handsome young man with his eyes on the stars (literally – Malik hopes that his interest in astronomy will garner him scholarship help to attend college). Malik likes Annie, but he worries about becoming a father at this point in his life and sabotages their planned sexual encounter.

More confused than ever, Annie turns to Keera, who seems to have found a satisfying life for herself through her family and her church. But, Keera turns out to have issues of her own, leaving Annie once again to fend for herself.

Ms. Greenidge knows her characters, the young women in particular. She has down their motivations, their insecurities, and especially how they talk. The talk itself is both colorful and poetic, and its raw power is the play’s strength. Interestingly, Ms. Greenidge has cast her young men against type: sensitive dreamers who are not simply out for themselves. The men talk differently, too, in part because they’re older and in part because they’re wiser, at least a little.

The narrative, however, is one told many times over, and Ms. Greenidge’s poetry isn’t enough to hide that fact. There’s not enough to these characters to make adult audiences stay interested and attentive (a welcome intermission was added after the playbill was printed). Perhaps an audience whose members are coping with similar issues would engage with the characters more readily.

Ms. Taichman has been with this project since its early days. She directs women especially well, and her ear is attuned to the rhythms and conventions of the speech that Ms. Greenidge has written for her women characters. Turning the difficult Potiker space to her advantage, she makes the action more immediate by framing it in smaller or larger areas through the use of a wall that moves toward and away from the audience as needed. The designers all do fine work, but the prize goes to Andre Pluess’ composition and sound design. Mr. Pluess has created a musical theme for the show which is flexible enough to morph from one mood to another as the plot develops (but sometimes those morphs are pretty subtle - you need to listen for them).

The cast, too, is a quite credible one. Ms. Pinkins, the most well-known performer, has the smallest role, and her character is the least sympathetic. Still, she manages to create something dimensional, especially as Annie confronts Myrna about dreams, both lost and found. Ms. Lewis makes you root for Annie, though to do what is deliberately uncertain (as is the play’s resolution). Mr. McClain has both the temperament of a true artist and moves that make him great potential boyfriend material. Ms. Moore’s character has the biggest (and most heartbreaking) “reveal,” and Mr. Mallory-McCree plays both his character’s determination to succeed and his longing for love and affection in an entirely believable manner. As Annie’s pregnancy pact friends, Ms. Boothe and Ms. Mathis play their adolescent “mean girl” roles expertly but have trouble showing what’s beneath.

Jean Paul Sartre famously posited that “hell is other people,” but in the world of these characters hell is mostly the place where they live. Ms. Greenidge seems to be saying that these characters need to be out of where they are living in order to have the satisfying lives they all yearn for, but she also hedges her bets. Milk Like Sugar’s story is probably more realistic because she did so, but it would have been a more satisfying play without the hedging.

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