SpeakEasy Stage, Boston, MA. **** out of 5. Playwright Steven Drukman has a gift for writing people of different classes – the intelligentsia, and everyday working folk – with equal authenticity. Which is a distinct advantage in Pru Payne, which rides on the realization that opposites attract, even (and maybe especially) when neurodegeneration begins to rear its head. The setting is a Massachusetts memory clinic, wherein the title character (Karen MacDonald) is a literary critic of no small renown in the Susan Sontag/Mary McCarthy vein, frustrated in her recent inability to complete thoughts, let alone a promised memoir. Her terror is no less than that of Gus Cudahy (Gordon Clapp), custodian at a local academy who keeps driving the school bus to J.C. Penney. This odd couple bonds through the music of their youth, shared disappointments, and still-pulsing lust for life. As do their sons, one-time prep school classmates Thomas Payne (De’Lon Grant), a would-be novelist always in mom’s shadow, and Art Cudahy (Greg Maraio), a dog breeder, down-to-earth with the most wicked Bah-ston accent since Good Will Hunting. Both relationships grow even as faculties disintegrate. SpeakEasy Stage gives this gossamer piece a clean, solid staging with outstanding performances. Grant and Maraio find enough levels to warrant a full play of their own, and Marianna Bassham plays the clinic doctor with full authority and no clichés. Drukman and director Paul Daigneault, in his penultimate stint with the company he founded, indulge Pru in the first half with excessive merriment. (I never saw Sontag or McCarthy or Midge Decter, gorgons all, laugh at their own jokes.) A sterner Pru in the beginning would render her thawing that much more meaningful. But as MacDonald (a local treasure, and this performance demonstrates why) falls to pieces, only to fall into the staunch, sturdy arms of Clapp, an equally formidable actor, Daigneault lets their affection and our heartbreak rip. Like I said, it’s all about authenticity. (At Calderwood Pavilion, 527 Tremont St., through Nov. 19. https://speakeasystage.com/shows/2024/10/pru-payne/ Photo of MacDonald and Clapp by Nile Scott Studios.)