Lynn
Nottage, who has been called “as fine a playwright as America has,” started to
craft “Sweat,” which is now getting a
production at Cleveland Play House, in 2011, just before the height of the
national malaise, but not before Reading, Pennsylvania and similar areas were
hit by layoffs, plant closings, and general angst. The playwright honed in on the national
problem and succeeded in writing a raw, disturbing and illuminating script that
won the 2017 Pulitzer for Drama.
As
I said in my Broadway review of the show, in 2011, steel industry-centric
Reading, Pennsylvania, topped the national census’s poverty list. The city’s residents were battered by the
closing down of rust belt industries as companies packed up and moved to countries
with lower worker wages, and low-cost steel from China’s government-subsidized
plants flooded the market.
Economic inequality and economic
insecurity raised their ugly heads, not only in PA, but other industrial
states, resulting in a surprise election result as the usual Democratic voters
became desperate for scapegoats and easy cures for their woes.
Most
of the eight-year story takes place inside and outside a bar in Reading, where
the employees of the nearby steel mill hang out.
In
the early segments, the bar visitors are in a positive mood. Hours, pay, and working conditions are
good. One of the women, an African
American, is promoted to a management position and there is general pride in her
advancement. Then downsizing and a strike
to protect wages takes place. The
bartender warns, “You could wake up tomorrow and all your jobs are in Mexico.”
As
his prophecy becomes reality, as de-industrialization takes place, attitudes of
the “friends” change. Inner group squabbles
emerge, hatred toward scabs who cross the picket line become strong, as
scapegoats for the changing economics are needed, racial and ethnic differences
become causes for arguments and physical abuse. Matters get even worse when the plant closes.
The
script clearly reveals the frustration of the white blue collar middle class,
who, in their desperation to regain self-respect and hope for financial
stability, are willing to put aside their respect for truth and start to
believe “alternative facts,” to replace logic with acceptance of emotional
shim-sham, and accept that they need to make America “white” again as a
combination of Hispanics, blacks and Asians have become the majority
population. Slogans and insults became
their truth and they became Trump voters.
The
Cleveland Play House production, under the adept direction of Laura Kepley, is
even better than the Broadway show. Not
only has Kepley captured every nuance of the finely written script, she has
developed a cast whose textured performances make the characters live. Their depictions are so real that every pain,
every emotional crack in their lives, become our pain.
The
production is helped by the thrust stage of the Outcalt Theatre which forces
the audience to be up-front and personal with the action, thus proving the
wisdom of moving the CPH productions from the outdated, three proscenium stages
of their former home into the freshly adaptive Allen complex.
Each
of the unit cast of Jack Berenholtz (Jason), Brooks Brantly (Chris), Xavier
Cano (Oscar) Nehassaiu deGannes (Cynthia), Robert Ellis (Stan), Robert Barry
Fleming), Evan (Robert Barry Fleming), Nancy Lemenager (Tracey), Chris Seibert
(Jessie) and Jimmie Woody (Brucie) is flawless.
Special huzzahs to Lemenager, Berenholtz and DeGannes.
It
is so nice to see many Cleveland area professional performers in this
production. It adds a special touch to
CLEVELAND Play House.
Capsule judgement: Theater
represents the era from which it comes, and “Sweat” clearly and shockingly tells
the depressing tale of what went on during the financial downturn of this
country and the resulting hysteria and desperation by a group of people who
felt they had been disenfranchised by big business, betrayed by their
government, and sold out by their union and political leaders. It is an important play which fulfills the
educational obligation of the arts. THIS
IS AN ABSOLUTELY MUST SEE PERFORMANCE!
“Sweat” at runs at CPH
through November 4, 2018. For tickets
call 216-241-6000 or go to http://www.clevelandplayhouse.org/
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