Tough and Tender: Players to Stage Contemporary Comedy with Social Conscience

The Middlebury Community Players will present David Lindsay-Abaire's play Good People, February 9-12, at Town Hall Theater in Middlebury. Showtimes are 7:30 Thursday through Saturday, with a 2:00 matinee on Sunday.

Good People is a brisk South Boston comedy written in the key of Margie Walsh.

A feisty single mother who can't catch a break, Margie is getting fired-again. As if this weren't humiliating enough, Margie's landlord reacts to the news by threatening her with eviction. Desperate, Margie takes a friend's advice and looks up an old flame who "got out" of "Southie" and "made good." The old flame and his wife are living quite well, but he seems more concerned with keeping Southie out of his office (and his living room) than with helping an old friend. Thus begins the slow, tortuous unraveling of two carefully crafted versions of one shared history. What she calls luck he calls perseverance. What she calls secrets he calls lies. Caught in the crossfire, his wife finds it surprisingly difficult to choose sides.

Pulitzer Prize-winning Lindsay-Abaire's tough and tender portrait of his childhood neighborhood questions class, race, privilege, power, and personal truth. His thought-provoking play constantly switches between heart-breaking and side-splitting and provides a theatrical experience no audience will ever forget. Cast members are Kate LaRiviere, Christopher Ross, Tami Shearer, Maria Stockman, Sarah Stone and Alex Nicosia. Please note that the play contains profanity and mature themes.

$12 February 9 (opening night); $17 February 10-12. Tickets are available through the Town Hall Theater Box Office, 802-382-9222, or online at www.townhalltheater.org. More information is available at www.middleburycommunityplayers.org.