NEW LEBANON – The Theatre Barn is a small summer theater company located on Route 20 in New Lebanon. It’s old-fashioned, summer stock theater that uses familiar actors who often perform in one play in the evening and rehearse another during the day.
Their schedule during July and August offers comedies, small musicals, and at least one Agatha Christie mystery a season. It just finished a two-weekend run of “You’re a Good Man, Charlie Brown!.”
However, in September, the company usually offers a play of substance. Tonight, it opens the thoughtful drama “Good People,” which will run Thursdays through Sundays through September 19. The play written by David Lindsay-Abaire is about people who grew up together in the same blue-collar neighborhood in the south end of Boston.
The work centers on the two “southies” who took different routes through life. Margie Walsh, a single mother with a handicapped teenage daughter, has just been fired from her job as a cashier at a Dollar Store. She shows up at her former boyfriend’s house looking for help. Mike is now a prosperous doctor who is married to a sophisticated woman of color. He reluctantly agrees to help Margie find a job.
But the solution to Margie’s problems and issues is more complex than stated. Before long, old wounds and new complications surface in this ever-shifting play about power, poverty, and privilege.
Kathleen Carey, who plays Margie, describes “Good People” as “an honest, unflinching look at the real struggles of everyday life for those living from paycheck-to-paycheck.” She adds, “That’s a lot of us, whether it was choices made or luck that determines our fate.”
Carey, a Troy native, who, when not onstage manages the children’s department of The Book House of Stuyvesant Plaza in Albany, and its other store, Market Block Books in downtown Troy.
Her retail background permits her to empathize with her character. “I don’t have a disabled child, and I make more than Margie’s $9.75 an hour, but I understand what it’s like to depend on weekly paychecks,” she says.
Though Carey, who is single, doesn’t have a disabled child, she does know about assuming responsibilities that alter your personal life choices.
She has appeared on the Theatre Barn stage every season since 2007 when she starred in “Boy Gets Girl.” However, her last performance at the Barn was in 2017. That’s because she became the primary caregiver to both her mother and father, who are now deceased.
She admits that at the first table read of the play the emotions that came with working with other actors and a script she admires brought her to tears. But once her emotions leveled off she described it “like drinking water in a desert.”
Making the return comfortable is “Good People” is directed by Phil Rice, a person with whom she estimates has directed her at least seven times and acted with her twice. “We have a wonderful shorthand that’s almost uncanny,” she says.
She also has great things to say about working with actor Chris Brophy, a newcomer to Theatre Barn, who plays Mike. “Our first scene in rehearsal was amazing. We were both so comfortable with each other it was as if we worked together for years.”
What Carey finds so remarkable about the experience is the opening scene of the play is extremely awkward for both Mike and Margie. It’s all about shifting power and we were each comfortable being uncomfortable. In fact, we instinctively were able to find the humor that usually exists in awkward situations.”
Carey has taught second grade at Sacred Heart Elementary School in Troy, manages at a book store, and is a voracious reader. It comes as no surprise when picking a play in which to perform, her priority is a well-written script.
She has nothing but admiration for Lindsay-Abaire’s writing. “This is a very complex play,” is her basic description. She elaborates saying, “All the characters, including the supporting roles, are all fleshed out. The dialogue is razor-sharp, visceral, and intense, yet it has moments of great humor.”
Her favorite example of Lindsay-Abaire’s subtle style is the title, “Good People.” She says throughout the play your loyalties are constantly switching.
“Margie is not really a nice person, but you have to have compassion for her. Michael is a decent guy, but he’s not a hero. Ultimately, all the characters in the play are good people. But sometimes they’re not.
“The play forces you to ask – what does it mean to be a good person?”
“Good People,” at Theatre Barn, New Lebanon. Performances Thursdays-Sundays, tonight through September 19. For tickets and schedule, information, call 518-794-8989 or go to theatrebarn.org. Proof of vaccination is required and face masks must be worn in the theater.
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