To pull oneself up by the bootstraps, one must first have boots. That’s one of the themes of Good People, the David Lindsay-Abaire play brought to us by Stray Dog Theatre.
Margie Walsh, an about-to-be-middle-aged woman in south Boston, is the struggling single mother of a disabled adult daughter. Played by Lavonne Byers, she’s just lost another job, this one as a cashier at a dollar store. She’s tough and brassy but tired, beaten down by life’s repeated smacks upside the head, as her mother probably would have said. The neighborhood known as Southie has been in real life a blue-collar area for several generations – and indeed gained a reputation when violence erupted there because of school desegregation in the mid-Seventies. Her landlady Dottie, Liz Mischel, is also, sort of, her friend and her babysitter. Then there’s her even more raucous pal from high school, Jean, played by Stephanie Merritt, who’s particularly given to egging Margie on. They make quite a trio with their repartee, especially in the first act. No one seems to be hiring and Margie is desperate.
It turns out that one of her school friends, Mike, here Stephen Peirick, she dated for a couple of months, made the transition from Southie to med school. He’s now a reproductive endocrinologist. Margie’s so desperate for a job that she manages to get into his office to see him. She doesn’t put on any airs in the visit, acknowledging she has no idea what kind of a doctor that would be or what she could do in his office, but doesn’t he have something? He doesn’t, and she shames him into an invitation to the birthday party his wife is throwing for him that weekend. Maybe, she says, someone there will have a job for her.
Mike phones to tell her the party is canceled because their daughter is sick, but Margie doesn’t believe him and shows up anyway. High drama ensues.
Byers may have been made for this role. She’s so authentic, it becomes uncomfortable to watch. It certainly is for Peirick’s Mike, who frequently looks as though he wishes he were dealing with the IRS or having his teeth pulled. Instead he’s coping with Margie in front of his wife, the work of Laurell Stevenson, who seems pleasant and mildly interested in their unexpected visitor.
This is the second show that’s in town right now set in eastern Massachusetts and dealing with racism, classism, and probably some sexism, too. It all works, and the accents are mostly very good indeed.
Gary Bell directed, and it was a wise choice to have Margie be bristly instead of merely downtrodden. Josh Smith’s scenic design was versatile and Tyler Duenow did the lighting design. As usual, Justin Been’s sound design was spot on.
Fine ensemble work overall in a play that could descent into soap opera territory but never does. Well played.
Good People
through February 26
Stray Dog Theatre
Tower Grove Abbey
2336 Tennessee Avenue
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