(9/20) "Sweat" by Lynn Nottage
"It’s the year 2000 in Reading, Pennsylvania and a group of friends go to work at the steel mill and then decompress at the bar like they’ve been doing for over 20 years. But, unbeknownst to them, their lives are about to be uprooted. Their steel mill, Olstead’s, is making some changes and the blood, sweat and tears, not to mention the generations of loyalty these workers have shown, don’t seem to amount to much. These middle class, unionized, steelworkers have made plans to save money, go on vacations and then retire with a nice, healthy pension, but when rumors start flying that the company is considering layoffs, and flyers are hung to recruit non-union Latino workers for less money, the war between community and capitalism begins, and tensions start destroying not only jobs, but also relationships. This poignant play takes a look at the de-industrial revolution through the lens of a history play, but also delves into the issues of today: the economy, immigration, race-relations in America, and politics"
Videos
Staged Reading of Show (Not Great Quality but if someone doesn't have Scribd Access):
- New York Times: "'Sweat' is best at its muddiest, when love and hate, and the urges to strike out and to comfort, teeter in precipitous balance. That’s when Ms. Nottage’s characters...emerge in their full tragic humanity.
- Chicago Tribune: "...'Sweat' is a piece about how these cruel bosses and their inhuman system of capitalist competition forces the various racial groupings of the working-class to feed upon themselves. And that the America we all now share is filled with the walking wounded from that bloody battle.
"During 2020 I've spent a lot of time thinking about the nature of work and labor. How one of the myriad reasons for the US's complete bungling of COVID-19 was the stubborn refusal to acknowledge the basic failings of capitalism. With even less jobs to be had, wages stagnant, benefits evaporating, and billionaires only getting richer, there's a certain dog-eat-dog, fuck-you-got-mine attitude about working. I think this play showcases a crucial step in how we got to this desperate point. A lot of reviewers heralded 'Sweat' as "the first play that explained how Trump was elected," and I think Lynn Nottage is instead telling us the rot of American capitalism runs much deeper, and has for some time. In a general sense, I picked this play because I think it is especially valuable to read modern works by a varied group of playwrights. This is also a show that won a lot of awards, including the Pulitzer Prize for Drama in 2017, so it might be worth a read!"
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