Every once in a while, a piece of art comes along that perfectly captures the zeitgeist of the time – and that is very much the case with Sweat rolling through town in 2019.
With many Albertans sitting at home due to a lack of work in the oil industry, and thousands in Ontario set to be laid off by General Motors, Lynn Nottage’s Pulitzer-winning play about blue-collar workers in Reading, Pa., being at the mercy of apathetic executives who care more about profit than the well-being of their employees is sure to hit home for audiences at the Citadel Theatre.
The plot forces the audience to reflect on the consequences of working in a city that relies heavily on one industry. For the characters in Sweat, this includes friendships ending, financial poverty, alcoholism, drug addiction and race-related violence.
Though the theme of Sweat is serious, there is also plenty of dark humour mixed in to help ease the tension. One of the biggest laughs of the night comes when a character asks, “How come there’s no white history month?”
The play begins with two separate meetings between a parole officer and two men who have recently been released from prison.
The first meeting is with Jason (Chris W. Cook), a Caucasian man with a short temper and a Nazi tattoo on his neck. The second meeting is with Chris (Andrew Creightney), a clean-cut African-American who wants to finish his education.
Through separate conversations with the officer, it is revealed that Jason and Chris know each other. However, what led the two to be incarcerated at the same time is unknown.
To give the audience the answer, the plot jumps back in time to the lead-up to the 2000 U.S. presidential election, in a gritty bar where workers go to relax after a long day.
Tracey (Nicole St. Martin) and Cynthia (Marci T. House), longtime friends and the mothers of Jason and Chris, are loyal workers who have each put in more than 25 years at the local plant. Stan (Ashley Wright), the bartender who walks with a limp, also worked at the plant for close to 30 years before a work-related injury ended his career.
They’re often joined by Jessie (Lora Brovold), Bruce (Anthony Santiago) and Oscar (Alen Dominguez) – three characters who have their own adversities to face on a daily basis.
Through conversations in the bar, it is revealed that Reading is a blue-collar city where generation after generation of a family will work at the plant.
However, the executives at the plant do not have the same loyalty to their workers, and there is a divide between the people who work on “the floor” and those who “don’t want to get sweat on their diplomas.”
Friendships are lost and true colours are revealed when news breaks that the plant is moving jobs out of the country and locking out workers until the union agrees to a 60-per-cent pay cut.
The play is brilliantly directed by Valerie Planche, and each actor takes a turn tugging on the audience’s heartstrings while also getting laughs with their excellent comedic timing.
Sweat runs at the Citadel Theatre until Feb. 3.
