Out of luck

If life is a game of cards, how much is determined by choices, by skill, by available options or by sheer luck of the draw? In David Lindsay-Abaire’s searing story of South Boston’s working-class neighborhood, two Southies whose paths drastically diverged after high school meet up again to find out they have radically different views on self-determination.

Capital Stage’s Good People starts off in the alley behind a dollar store, where cashier Margaret (Rebecca Dines, in an achingly honest, memorable performance) is getting fired for her chronic lateness. Margaret responds to her manager with a flip, hardened humor that’s both hilarious and reeks of desperation—trademarks of Margaret’s personality that make her character both endearing and infuriating.

Margaret’s hopelessness is played out when she returns to her apartment to commiserate her lot in life with Dottie (Linda Montalvo-Carbone), who is both her landlord and the babysitter of Margaret’s disabled adult daughter, and Margaret’s best buddy, Jean (Lori Russo). The three are a hilarious trio of bitter bitchery. They no longer have any social filters or much hope that life will turn a corner, since they’re all stuck in the muck of luck or choices gone bad.

Through a chance meeting and a ballsy, desperate decision, Margaret bursts into the life of old high-school boyfriend and now doctor Mike (James Hiser), who lives miles and a lifetime from his Southie roots. At first, Mike is humored by this blast from the past, but he soon learns that Margaret is an unreliable firecracker ready to blow up his comfortable smug life with unpleasant truths and awkward accusations. Class distinctions come to an interesting head when Margaret ventures out to his spacious house to find out he’s “all lace-curtains Irish now” with fancy wines and a bourgeois wife (ZZ Moor, reprising her Marin Theatre Company role as Kate).

Director Stephanie Gularte deftly directs this talented cast, careful not to teeter into stereotypes or overplayed accents or attitudes. Dines shines as a wounded Margaret—so much so that, in a moment when her character breaks down, the audience lets out a collective moan of painful recognition. Special shout-out to the always-creative Capital Stage scenic designer Dave Nofsigner for the imaginative set design.