Raising Big Questions

David Lindsay-Abaire’s “Good People” is about being down and out in Boston and why some people get out of the ghetto, and others do not. In the opening scene, with some of the best writing in the play, Margie Walsh (Frances McDormand) tries hard to avoid being fired for chronic lateness by her supervisor/friend, Stevie (Patrick Carroll). She bobs and weaves around the complaints (she says she has a daughter who is retarded), all to no avail. Stevie says he has orders to fire her or be out of a job himself. Margie, facing eviction by her landlady (Estelle Parsons, not able to show much of her considerable talent in a minor role), decides to contact an old flame, Mike (Tate Donovan), a man she hasn’t seen in many years. Mike is a fertility doctor. The awkwardness of two lovers meeting after such a long time is beautifully written and well played. Hanging over the action is that the retarded daughter “was born prematurely,” so, like the gun that is dropped into the action ready to explode in Act III, you know right away that there is going to be an announcement about the father. Margie and Mike talk about the old days, how Mike almost killed a black kid who wandered into the neighborhood, and probably would have, but for Mike’s father who just happened to look out the window and then ran out to stop the battery. Mike says he has no job to offer but then gets talked into inviting Marge to a party that he and his wife are giving the next night. There will be lots of doctors there and maybe, Marge says, a chance for a job. Marge later is told that the party has been canceled but she thinks this is a lie and shows up at Mike’s house anyway. Marge meets Kate (Renee Elise Goldsberry), Mike’s African-American wife, and indeed the party was canceled due to the illness of the couples’ daughter. There then follows a very long scene, the center of the play, in which Kate learns of the long-ago affair between her husband and Marge. This, along with, of course, that announcement about who is, or is not, the father of Marge’s daughter. The action owes a lot to Edward Albee’s “Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?” It’s too bad that “Good People” is brought down by some of these plot shenanigans because there are many interesting issues raised in the play, such as why does Mike escape his lower-class roots? Because his father looked out the window? And why is Marge incapable of taking any action to help her daughter? How do the poor get by in these crueltimes? Does Marge’s equivocation about the paternity make her a good person? What does it mean to be a good person? Is Stevie one because he lends Marge money though he fired her? What about Mike? He helps people become parents, but he sleeps around. One very compelling reason to see the play is McDormand’s performance. She is shifty, manipulative, angry, bitchy, funny and more. It’s a treat that will stay with you. The rest of the cast is good; John Lee Beatty’s set and Dan Sullivan’s direction are first-rate. So, it seems this is a play with ambitions that is humbled by some cliches. “Good People” runs at the Samuel J. Friedman Theater in New York City through May 8.For tickets, telephone 212-239-6200.