by James Wilkinson

‘Winter People’ – Written by Laura Neill. Directed by Avital Shira. Scenic Design: Kayla Williams. Lighting Design: Mark Fortunato. Sound Design: Aubrey Dube. Costume Design: Chloe Chafetz. Fight Choreographer: Jessica Scout Malone. Dramaturg: Cayenne Douglass. Presented by Boston Playwrights’ Theatre at Boston Playwrights Theatre, 949 Commonwealth Ave. Boston through December 16

Boston Playwrights’ Theatre’s new production, Winter People by Laura Neill, creates a community by showing one in disintegration. It builds its narrative by pulling us, scene by scene, through the stories of five different families that make their home in the Hamptons. They’re not the upper of the upper class we usually associate with the Hamptons, the ones who summer in the McMansions. Rather, they’re the middle and lower-middle class Americans that make the area their home year-round, the ones who stay through the winter. A wide cast of characters from this community is allowed to interact in a way that might put you in mind of a Robert Altman film. Neil’s play has that kind of laid back approach to its storytelling. The play begins with a mystery, but that soon fades into the background. She’s more interested in showing how these five families intersect with each other until they form a much larger web and how their fates play into each other. That first mystery (and what it builds on) pulls you in and thanks to the skills of the actors, the play has a handful of arresting moments. But you might leave the theater (as I did) feeling as though the premise has been skimmed rather than dived into.

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