Reviews
A lyrical and understanding chronicler of people who somehow become displaced within their own lives. . . . Mr. Lindsay-Abaire has shown a special affinity for female characters suddenly forced to re-evaluate the roles by which they define themselves."— The New York Times, 'Poignant, brave and almost subversive in its focus on what it really means to be down on your luck', "A lyrical and understanding chronicler of people who somehow become displaced within their own lives. . . . Mr. Lindsay-Abaire has shown a special affinity for female characters suddenly forced to re-evaluate the roles by which they define themselves."-- The New York Times "Lindsay-Abaire's complex characters illustrate the difficult choices people will make to achieve their ambitions or retain their own sense of pride, along with the importance of luck in escaping poverty. By the end of the play, the near impossibility of always being 'good people' is searingly apparent." -Jennifer Farrar, Associated Press, "A lyrical and understanding chronicler of people who somehow become displaced within their own lives. . . . Mr. Lindsay-Abaire has shown a special affinity for female characters suddenly forced to re-evaluate the roles by which they define themselves."-- The New York Times, A lyrical and understanding chronicler of people who somehow become displaced within their own lives. . . . Mr. Lindsay-Abaire has shown a special affinity for female characters suddenly forced to re-evaluate the roles by which they define themselves."— The New York Times Lindsay-Abaire's complex characters illustrate the difficult choices people will make to achieve their ambitions or retain their own sense of pride, along with the importance of luck in escaping poverty. By the end of the play, the near impossibility of always being ‘good people' is searingly apparent." –Jennifer Farrar, Associated Press, 'The most substantial new play since August: Osage County... It has a quality rarely seen on Broadway - it seems necessary', 'As tough as it is tender, and shot through with aching authenticity, Good People is that rare play that is timeless and keyed into a specific moment of American life, without the need to grasp for topicality'
Synopsis
Stories of lives lost and found at the crossroads of the ordinary, the bizarre, the tragic, and the comic, "As tough as it is tender, and shot through with aching authenticity, Good People is that rare play that is timeless and keyed into a specific moment of American life, without the need to grasp for topicality...Bringing the same clear-eyed emotional observation that distinguished his Pulitzer Prize-winner Rabbit Hole , Lindsay-Abaire has crafted another penetrating drama about deeply relatable issues." -David Rooney, Hollywood Reporter "Searing, superbly written...this is a well-made play, in the best sense of the term." -Chris Jones, Chicago Tribune "If Good People isn't a hit for Manhattan Theatre Club, there is no justice in the land. Lindsay-Abaire pays his respects to his old South Boston neighborhood with this tough and tender play about the insurmountable class divide between those who make it out of this blue-collar Irish neighborhood and those who find themselves left behind." -Marilyn Stasio, Variety "Substantial, tender yet often howlingly funny...delectably uncomfortable to sit through. I'd call it a smart, painful social comedy with a head and a heart." -Dominic Maxwell, The Times (UK) With his signature humor, Lindsay-Abaire explores the struggles, shifting loyalties and unshakeable hopes that come with having next to nothing in America. Set in Boston's Southie neighborhood, where a night on the town means a few rounds of bingo, where this month's paycheck covers last month's bills, we meet Margaret Walsh, who is facing eviction and scrambling to catch a break. When a friend from the old neighborhood, who is now very successful, moves back to town, Margaret hopes he may be the ticket to turning her life around. David Lindsay-Abaire is the Pulitzer-winning author of Rabbit Hole , which was made into a feature film. He is the author of Good People , Fuddy Meers , Wonder of the World , A Devil Inside and Kimberly Akimbo , as well as the book and lyrics to Shrek the Musical . He has written the screenplays for Rabbit Hole , Rise of the Guardians and Oz: The Great and Powerful . Born in South Boston, he now lives in Brooklyn., "Lopez has the ability to give the reader whiplash with his unconventional and bewitching stories." -- Los Angeles Times "Robert Lopez is the master of deadpan dread, of the elliptical koan, of the sudden turn of language that reveals life to be so wonderfully absurd. Always with Lopez, the voice is all his--enchanting, surprising, at times devastating." -- JESS WALTER , author of Beautiful Ruins "Robert Lopez's strange, incantatory, visionary stories reveal the mysteries behind the ordinary world. You lift your head from this book and it's as if a third eye has been opened." -- DAN CHAON , author of Await Your Reply and Stay Awake "Nothing is funnier than unhappiness," claims Samuel Beckett. To this, we add: nothing is funnier than unhappiness with a heavy dose of amorality, as we learn from Robert Lopez's unforgettable Good People . In these twenty stories, a motley cast of obsessive, self-deluded outsiders narrate their darker moments, which include kidnapping, voyeurism, and psychic masochism. As their struggles give way to the black humor of life's unreason, the bleak merges with the oddly poetic, in a style as lean and resolute as Carver or Hemingway. Treading the fine line between confession and self-justification, the absurd violence of threatened masculinity, and the perverse joy of neurosis, Lopez's stories reveal the compulsive suffering at the precarious core of our universal humanity. Robert Lopez is the author of two novels, Part of the World and Kamby Bolongo Mean River , and the story collection Asunder . He lives in Brooklyn.
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