In the world of Margaret Walsh, you're either lucky or you're not. And as a single mother who just lost her job at the Dollar Store, can't pay the rent, and can't, for the life of her, make it out of South Boston, her luck feels like it's finally run out. She's even hopeless at bingo.

It's the kind of life that will harden a "woman" into a "broad"—a tough old broad, one might say, who tells it like it is, with a smattering of racist slurs and profanity (followed by a gracious "Pardon my French"). Even the "g" in her name is hard: Margie. Like she grew up on the same block as Marky Mark, and lived around the corner from Roseanne.

It's hard to tell if we're supposed to like or loathe Margie, the lead character in David Lindsay-Abaire's Good People, now on stage at Seattle Repertory Theatre. The Pulitzer-winning playwright of Rabbit Hole paints a complex picture of the hard-luck life, pitting Margie against a former flame, Mike—the now well-to-do Dr. Mike—when she goes looking for work. One Southie never left the neighborhood; the other escaped due to "hard work" and "perseverance," the kind of words you see on posters in college dorm rooms.

Or, as Margie would call it, luck.

Much like Clybourne Park at Seattle Rep last year, Lindsay-Abaire's comedy tells it like it is—tackling class, race, and relationships with a frankness that makes Seattle audiences laugh, and then look around to see if it's okay to laugh. Good People is in high demand, being produced across the country after finishing a stellar run on Broadway (with Frances McDormand as Margie), much because of its frankness. People want to talk about these issues—about whether the American Dream is only a reality for a few—and Seattle Rep wants a wider audience to get involved.

Which is why, as of today, the theater is making 25 $1 tickets available for every performance through the March 31 run. Tickets go on sale at the box office at noon, day of show, and when they run out, they're out. Are you feeling lucky?

Good People
Thru Mar 31, Seattle Rep, $1–$75