Set in Reading, Pennsylvania during Bush Jr’s term in office, Lynn Nottage’s Sweat tells the story of nine characters: Tracey, Stan, Jessie, Cynthia, Evan, Jason, Brucie, Chris and Oscar. Their lives depend on the factory that provides most of the town’s employment. When Bush’s notorious and flagrant manipulation of the economy went sideways, as we might expect, the working class and indigent are hardest hit. Scrambling to maintain profits, the factory cheats loyal employees by forcing them to renegotiate fair contracts, for less money. When they strike, the factory hires new labor for cheaper wages. People struggling for a better life make circumstances even worse for workers with seniority.
Most of the activity in Sweat happens in Stan’s bar, a regular watering hole for Cynthia, Jessie and Tracey, close friends who have worked the factory “floor” since they were teens. Chris and Jason, Cynthia and Tracey’s sons, are best friends, and spend a lot of time hanging out, when not working at the factory. Oscar helps Stan at the bar, busing tables, cleaning bathrooms, and so forth. Brucie is a drunken lout, and Cynthia’s husband. He’s not abusive, but irresponsible and given to benders. He will disappear for days.
Tracey, especially, has a short fuse. She tends to badger others and encourage escalation. As more and more of the folks living in Reading drop below the poverty level, and desperation rises, friendships deteriorate. When Cynthia, a hard-working, smart, African American woman is promoted, it sparks resentment from Jessie and Tracey, who figure she benefited from political correctness. When Cynthia’s torn between job dedication and loyalty to her friends, animosity grows. Prolonged, excruciating frustration erupts in rage and brawling.
Sweat is set by a special clock. Nottage shows us details, after and before a particular, devastating incident, and events leading up to it. We see Jessie, Cynthia and Tracey when they still cared for each other, unabashedly. As misery gradually takes over, we see the drunkenness, the anger, the sense of hopelessness, fueling catastrophe. Sweat makes it pretty evident that when Bush started gaming the economy to the advantage of the wealthy, the ripple effect on the 1% was no concern of his. Not that Sweat is an indictment. Rather it grieves the sense of solidarity and charity that we Americans forfeited as greedy, privileged class politicians looted and pillaged our resources. At a loss for some way to pull together, the struggling families of Reading have been condemned to chaos and despair.
The Dallas Theater Center presents Sweat, playing January 18th-February 10th, 2019. Kalita Humphreys Theater, 3636 Turtle Creek Boulevard (Corner of Blackburn and Turtle Creek) Dallas, Texas 75219. 214-880-0202. www.DallasTheaterCenter.org