When you see “Good People” at The Rep,  you won’t forget Margie, played in a bravura performance with a perfect Boston dialect by Denise Cormier. She’s blue-collar, hard-core and a supreme survivor. Margie has an electric edge and a heart of brass. It’s day-to-day for Margie, paycheck to paycheck.

“Good People” is set present time in both South Boston’s Lower End and the well-to-do Chestnut Hill area. Margie lives in a small apartment in Boston’s hardscrabble Southie neighborhood. She’s a single Mom with a mentally challenged daughter and a low-paying job at a Dollar Store. She has problems being on-time because of the needs of her daughter, and as “Good People” begins, Margaret is being fired by her boss at the Dollar Store, played by Aaron Orion Baker.

Margie needs a job and on a long shot she seeks out a visit to an old childhood friend and former boyfriend, played by R. Ward Duffy. He has become a successful fertility specialist and Margie thinks he might hire her in his office, or at least know some other people who might be able to give her a job. She ends up being invited to her friend’s home for a birthday party he’s giving for his young daughter that is being attended by many of his friends and colleagues.

The party turns into something else and Margie ends up at her former beau’s home involved a vibrant and revealing visit with him and his wife, played Zoey Martinson. Like everything in Margie’s life, it’s not how things were supposed to be, but Margie jumps right in and makes the evening her own.

Also in this cast of “Good People” are Andrea Gallo as Dottie and Elizabeth Ann Townsend as Jean, two of Margie’s best friends and Bingo playing buddies.

“Good People” is about passion and self-preservation. It is, at times, explosive. It has a wicked sense of humor. It has surprises. It has heart. And most of all, it has Denise Cormier playing Margie. She carries the evening and the message.  From her Boston accent to the desperate pacing of her character, she is perfect and makes it a perfect evening.

http://media.repstl.org/detail/good_people/