About the Play:

Good People is a full-length comedy by David Lindsay-Abaire. An unemployed single mother is barely hanging on in this class-conscious comedy about the haves and the have-nots in present-day South Boston. Will reconnecting with an old boyfriend be her ticket out, or will he reject her and his own humble roots? Good People is a funny and profound story that is sure to tug the heartstrings of its audience.

Good People is set in South Boston, the blue-collar neighbourhood on the wrong side of the tracks where David Lindsay-Abaire spent his childhood: where a night on the town means a few rounds of bingo, where this month's paycheck covers last month's bills, and where sharp-tongued single mother Margie Walsh has just been let go from yet another job. Facing eviction and scrambling to catch a break, she'll do anything it takes to pay the bills. Hearing that an old high school boyfriend who is now a doctor living in an upscale suburb is back in town, Margot hopes he may be the ticket to turning her life around. But is this apparently self-made man secure enough to face his humble beginnings? Margie is about to risk what little she has left to find out. With his signature humorous glow, David Lindsay-Abaire explores the struggles, shifting loyalties and unshakeable hopes that come with having next to nothing in America.

Good People premiered in 2011 at Samuel J. Friedman Theatre on Broadway in New York City and was awarded the New York Drama Critics Circle Award for Best Play, The Horton Foote Prize, The Edgerton Foundation New American Play Award, and two Tony nominations. Since then the play received its UK premiere in 2014 at the Hampstead Theatre and has been mounted by regional, high school, college, and community theatres.

Cast: 4 female, 2 male

What people say:

"Playwright David Lindsay-Abaire's Good People is full of interesting characters and sharply written scenes, which combine to paint an indelible portrait of a social milieu, the economically depressed blue-collar culture of Boston's South End." — Backstage

"There's nothing pure about the goodness or badness of the folks who inhabit this play. This
makes them among the most fully human residents of Broadway these days." — New York Times

"The remarkable thing about Good People is its refusal to settle into schematic patterns." — Los Angeles Times

"Good People delivers an astute class on the working class." — Chicago Sun Times

"David Lindsay-Abaire pays his respects to his old South Boston neighborhood with this tough and tender play about the insurmountable class divide between those who make it out of this blue-collar Irish neighborhood and those who find themselves left behind. The scrappy characters have tremendous appeal, and the moral dilemma they grapple with — is it strength of character or just a few lucky breaks that determines a person's fate? — holds special significance in today's harsh economic climate." — Variety

"…shot through with aching authenticity, Good People is that rare play that is both timeless and completely keyed into a specific moment in American life—without the need to grasp for topicality. Bringing the same clear-eyed emotional observation that distinguished his Pulitzer winner, Rabbit Hole, David Lindsay-Abaire has crafted another penetrating drama about deeply relatable issues, albeit this time with more warming doses of humor." — Hollywood Reporter

"Wonderful … this isn't a manipulative tear-jerker or a simplistic diatribe. Good People is poignant, brave and almost subversive in its focus on what it really means to be down on your luck." — New York Post

"Tough, genuinely funny and often deeply moving… the dialogue has a cracking energy and the beady observation of the class divide constantly rings true… shades of Mamet, but Lindsay-Abaire has a bigger and far more generous heart." — The Telegraph (UK)

About the Playwright:

David Lindsay-Abaire is an American playwright, lyricist, librettist and screenwriter. He is the author of Rabbit Hole, winner of the Pulitzer Prize for Drama. His other theatre works include Good People, Fuddy Meers, and Kimberly Akimbo. He is Co-Chair of the Juilliard School's Playwriting Program.