Stage Write

Welcome to Boston, Southie to be specific, where jobs are scarce and bingo nights are popular. The Indiana Repertory Theatre’s current OneAmerica Stage play, “Good People”, takes audiences into the tricky topic of social class. It brings up the age-old question of luck vs. hard work; can you succeed with just one?   The play comes from David Lindsay-Abaire, the same author as a previous IRT production “ Rabbit Hole ”. While the topic is very different the playwright's ability to tackle difficult issues no matter how uncomfortable they make us remains the same. And these issues: money, race, social status, etc., tend to make people very uncomfortable The show’s powerhouse performances, particularly from leads Constance Macy and Sean Patrick Reilly, are what really drive the message home. Each one tackles their complex character with an attention to detail that lends a feeling of authenticity to the story. Macy is the down-and-out Margie, a single mom with a disab...

From the first moments of the show there is an overwhelming feeling that you've stumble into someone's house and you're overhearing their conversations. That atmosphere, aided by the homey set, lends an air of authenticity to the actors' emotions. "Rabbit Hole" is the story of the intense pain of four very different individuals; a married couple, the wife's mother and her younger sister. Even though their heartbreak comes from the same loss, no one deals with it in the same way. The play has something everyone can identify with; family relationships, spousal tension, life's shattering disappointments and the struggle to overcome them, the ache of not knowing how you will possibly make it through another day. When people experience pain to this extent it's almost impossible to believe that anyone else's pain hurts as much as yours. They inevitably compare and critique each other's grief in an effort to understand their own. In one particular...