The pride of South Boston is on full display in the Huntington’s extraordinary “Good People.”
For years, the entertainment industry’s finest talents have tried, unsuccessfully, to capture the accent, attitude and essence of Southie. This ensemble, under the impeccable direction of Kate Whoriskey, does it so flawlessly it looks effortless.
Of course, it doesn’t hurt that playwright David Lindsay-Abaire hails from South Boston. Beneath the missing R’s and the chaotic lives seen in “Good People” is a sense of honor and code of ethics that fuel their existence, imbuing them with an almost indefinable sense of pride.
Local stage vets Karen Mac-Donald and Nancy E. Carroll look like they’ve rolled right off the No. 9 bus in their outrageously authentic portrayals of Bingo-playing Southie girls. Johanna Day is stellar as the down-on-her-luck Southie lifer whose job search wreaks havoc in exotic places like Chestnut Hill. Nick Westrate quietly turns in a poignant performance as a young man living in the shadow of his legendary mother, while Michael Laurence is spot-on as the “lace-curtain Irish” one that got away. Rachael Holmes rounds out the ensemble with her perfect portrayal of a seeming alien to this strange land.
Plot points
After losing her job at the Dollar Store, South Boston native Margie seeks help finding a new job from Mike, a one-time Old Harbor (Haba) resident whose life as a physician and a resident of Chestnut Hill doesn’t really have room for his one-time summer fling.
If you go
‘Good People’
Through Oct. 14
Huntington Theatre
264 Huntington Ave., Boston
$25-$95, 617-266-0800
