How much does chance play a role in success?
“We talk a lot about working hard and pulling ourselves up by our bootstraps, but sometimes luck does play a part in it,” said Marge Uhlarik-Boller, resident director at Steel Beam Theatre.
The idea is one explored in the Tony-nominated “Good People,” which kicks off the St. Charles theater’s new season. Opening Friday, performances are at 8 p.m. Fridays and Saturdays, and at 3 p.m. Sundays. The show runs through Oct. 4.
Written by David Lindsay-Abaire, who won the 2007 Pulitzer Prize for Drama for “Rabbit Hole,” the play tells the story of Margaret — called Margie by her friends — who lives in the blue collar South Boston neighborhood of Boston.
“He is a South Boston boy,” Uhlarik-Boller said of the playwright. “This is a tribute, in a way, to his Southie upbringing.”
In the play, Margie is fired from her job as a cashier at a local dollar store. With an adult daughter who is mentally challenged at home, she is worried about how she will make ends meet.
Describing the show as a “comedy with dramatic overtones,” Uhlarik-Boller said the dialogue is sharp and witty.
“It’s not a diatribe in any way. It’s poignant,” she said. “It’s totally a look at what strength of character is.”
Lindsay-Abaire, she said, has “this wonderful ability to use comedy in his plays, but in a way to reveal so much.”
In hopes of getting a new job, Margie goes to see an ex-boyfriend from high school, who is now a doctor living in a more affluent neighborhood. The resulting conversations shed light on their differing beliefs about achieving success.
“It’s kind of a fascinating observation about the American class system,” Uhlarik-Boller said.
The cast of six, she said, has been working hard to perfect the South Boston dialect, which most of the characters speak.
“We are required to do a South Boston accent,” she said. “That’s a pretty specific accent.”
The actress who plays the lead role of Margie, Annie Slivinski, is actually a speech pathologist, Uhlarik-Boller said. Slivinski created a “cheat sheet” for fellow cast members on how to pronounce words.
“There’s a different sound in the way you place your vowels,” Uhlarik-Boller said.
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While the show appeals to adults and is one older adolescents would understand, audience members can expect to hear adult language used during the show, she said.
“They’re pretty salt of the earth, so sometimes they speak to each other that way,” Uhlarik-Boller said.
Calling the play “hilarious,” Uhlarik-Boller said it points out there are many things and conditions that factor into a human being’s success and makes one think.
“I think a lot of us can say, hmm, could be,” she said. “There but for the grace of God go I.”
Kathy Cichon is a freelance writer.
‘Good People’
When: Friday-Oct. 4
Where: Steel Beam Theatre, 111 W. Main St., St. Charles
Tickets: $28 adults; $25 seniors 62+ and $23 students
Information: 630-587-8521 or www.steelbeamtheatre.com