“Write what you know” goes the clichéd but all-too-true route to theatrical success, and playwright David Lindsay-Abaire knows about escaping poverty. Born and raised in a blue-collar neighborhood of South Boston, he became a Pulitzer Prize-winning dramatist (Rabbit Hole) as well as the adapter of his play Kimberly Akimbo into a much-acclaimed musical on Broadway this season.
He draws most directly on his hardscrabble beginnings, and what it means to get beyond them or to drown in them, in his 2011 play Good People, now receiving a fiercely authentic and ultimately devastating production at the Maltz Jupiter Theatre.
Two such Southies are Mike Dillon and Margie (pronounced with a hard “g”) Walsh, whose lives of want seemed preordained. But through hard work and twists of fate, he managed to change the course of his existence, getting an education and becoming an affluent fertility doctor. Margie, on the other hand, remained mired in the culture of have-nots, drifting from one low-paying job to the next, barely able to pay her rent or to care for her mentally impaired, grown daughter.
Thirty years earlier, Mike (Joe Cassidy) and Margie (Anne Bates) not only knew each other in high school, they dated for a couple of months. And when she gets fired from her dollar store cashier job in the play’s opening scene, Margie musters the courage — and foolhardiness — to visit Mike at his office and ask him for employment.
Initially cordial to this unexpected interloper from his past, he grows annoyed by her needling him about his newly gained “lace-curtain Irish” manner and his upscale Chestnut Hill residence. Still, whether out of compassion or guilt, Mike begrudgingly invites Margie to a birthday party at his home that weekend.
When he later phones her to say the party is off because his young daughter has a sudden illness, distrustful Margie decides to show up anyway. The dynamic there among Margie, Mike and his younger, African-American wife Kate takes up most of the second act, masterfully modulated by director Jerry Dixon as tempers simmer and ultimately reach a boiling point.
That showdown is the dramatic crux of the play, but before that Lindsay-Abaire manages to inject some humor into scenes at church bingo. There, Margie interacts with her crabby landlady, the aptly named Dottie (Delphi Harrington) and childhood pal, Jean (Kim Cozort Kay), who continues to keep tabs on old cronies from the neighborhood. Soon joining their bingo klatch is another Southie, Stevie (Sean William Davis), Margie’s former dollar store boss, who staunchly defends his affection for bingo, denying that it indicates he is gay.
These secondary characters are all colorfully drawn by Lindsay-Abaire and well performed by the Maltz ensemble, but the play’s main event is the showdown between Margie and Mike. As Margie, Anne Bates is very persuasive, toting a Back Bay accent and a huge chip on her shoulder. She sees Mike as her last ditch way out of the ‘hood, but is blind to the fact that her sarcasm and cynicism only push him further away.
Joe Cassidy’s Mike visibly holds his temper, but cannot help from channeling his pugnacious Southie past. Caught between the two of them is Tracee Beazer (Kate), a portrait in cultured detachment, until the sparring match in front of her eyes starts to open the scabs in her marriage.
Sydney Lynne’s several sets range from a Southie back alley to Mike’s spacious, sleek, perfectly appointed living room. She favors visible transitions between scenes, while making a point of employing some of the Maltz’s new scenic capabilities. Both K. April Soroko’s costumes and Kirk Bookman’s lighting are apt, though neither is attention-getting, adding to the documentary feeling of the production.
Good People — yes, the title brims with irony — encompasses issues of wealth inequity, the social class divide, gender and race, without ever seeming preachy. It is a play that should speak to everyone in the audience, delivered in a production that does the material justice.
GOOD PEOPLE, Maltz Jupiter Theatre, 1001 E. Indiantown Rd., Jupiter. Through Sunday, Feb. 26. $68-$95. 561-575-2223 or visit www.jupitertheatre.org.