‘Sweat’ brings blue-collar warmth to the stage at Gamm Theatre
WARWICK — Sometimes a play takes us places we might not otherwise experience, and sometimes a play feels only too familiar.
The latter is the case with “Sweat,” Lynn Nottage’s Pulitzer Prize-winning drama now in pitch-perfect production at the Sandra Feinstein-Gamm Theatre.
Nottage’s play deals with the experience of the American worker, and while the dates, places and industries may be different, the familiarity persists.
In the case of “Sweat,” the setting is Reading, Pa., and as the play begins, the year is 2008. Two young men take turns speaking, uncomfortably, with a parole officer, setting up the question to be resolved as the play progresses: What sent them to jail?
The next scene goes back to the year 2000, when most of the story takes place. Voice-overs, styled as news broadcasts, remind us of what life was like at the time: a roller-coaster stock market, globalization and NAFTA, encroaching automation in manufacturing. Most of the denizens of Reading
work at the steel plant, as did their parents. Factory work is hard, but the paycheck has supported a modest lifestyle and a sense of community.
Everyone unwinds at the local bar, and the set at The Gamm depicts it in perfect detail; it feels welcoming but a little gritty, a string of colored lights its only decoration.
The bar is where relationships are fostered and traditions created, like birthday celebrations among longtime friends and co-workers – until rumors of layoffs, plant relocations and demands for contract concessions start dividing friends into camps.
Nottage presents individual scenarios that touch on multiple social issues, like dependable workers who now feel expendable, young workers who see opportunity disappearing, and the anger that develops in the face of frustration.
These ideas are given a human face by a cast of Gamm regulars and newcomers who are, to a person, unfailingly authentic, realistic and passionate.
Director Rachel Walshe keeps a steady hand on that passion, however, and creates an honest, unsentimental but heartfelt production.
Enough adjectives? We haven’t talked about the warmth that is generated among these blue-collar workers, how real that feels, and how tragic it is to see it disintegrate.
Characters make some bad choices, but “Sweat” explores the sources for those choices and impulses. Whenever things get a bit didactic, Walshe and her cast figure out how to make the words and the situations feel real. We never lose that gut reaction to the small steps leading to a shattering event. Mercifully, something like resolution emerges from the ashes. Life in Reading never will be the same, but maybe different is not all bad.
Performances of “Sweat” continue through Nov. 27 at The Gamm Theatre, 1245 Jefferson Blvd. Tickets are $55-$65 and are available by phone at (401) 723-4266 or online at gammtheatre.org/sweat.
Information on Friday night pay-what-you-can rush tickets, as well as discounts for seniors, students and groups are available at gammtheatre.org/discounts.