Good Thing, the newest play from 1999 Susan Smith Blackburn Award winner Jessica Goldberg, will kick off the New Group's 2001-02 season Dec. 4-Jan. 13. Opening night of the drama, directed by frequent Eric Bogosian collaborator (and wife) Jo Bonney, is Dec. 16.

From a spring 2001 Actor's Gang run comes Good Thing, a look at human relationships going and gone wrong. Liz returns from college to find her old high school sweetheart and his wife expecting a child, a joyous occasion, except that he's struggling to keep her off drugs long enough to birth a healthy baby. Meanwhile, her old high school guidance counselor is one step away from divorce.

Goldberg won the Blackburn Award for Refuge. Other Off-Broadway credits include The Hologram Theory and Stuck.

Bonney directed Bogosian's subUrbia, Funhouse, Sex, Drugs and Rock 'n' Roll, Pounding Nails in the Floor With My Forehead and Wake Up and Smell the Coffee. For the New Group, she helmed The Fastest Clock in the Universe and The Flatted Fifth.

Good Thing features Betsy Aidem (The Butterfly Collection), Cara Buono (Broadway's The Rose Tattoo), Alicia Goranson (An Adult Evening of Shel Silverstein), Hamish Linklater (New York Shakespeare Festival's Hamlet), Chris Messina (Blur, The Hologram Theory) and John Rothman (Goodnight Children Everywhere, Death Defying Acts). Designing the production are Neil Patel (sets), James Vermeulen (lighting), Ken Travis (sound) and Mimi O'Donnell (costumes).

Tickets are $35-$25. The New Group Theatre at St. Clement's Church is located at 423 West 46th Street between 9th and 10th Avenues. For reservations, call (212) 643-6878. The New Group is on the web at http://www.newgrouptheater.com.

*

Also set for the New Group season is the U.S. premiere of Martin Crimp's The Country. A psychological thriller, the drama takes a typical family headed by Richard and Corinne from the hustle and bustle of the city to the "peaceful" countryside. The Country plays Feb. 5-March 17, 2002. Lisa Peterson will direct.

— By Christine Ehren