Sweat
Aurora, IL is returning from Covid and a restructuring program where the downtown area is resurging with great restaurants like Stolp Island Social, which I highly recommend as the food is delicious. Already known for great live theatrical performances at Paramount theater, Aurora now has the beautiful New Copley Theatre. This state-of-the-art structure, which is across from Paramount, shows off its elegance and features a cozy theater that allows Aurora the chance to double its theater performances. Lynn Nottage SWEAT is an ideal play to bring to this theater.
Set in an impoverished American town, factory workers come to a bar to enjoy a few laughs and try to drink away their sustenances and fears. But, with one of the factories threatening to shut down if the employees do not take severe pay cuts and significant concessions, many worried their long-standing commitment to a corporation would end in long lines where friendships and families are ruined.
When words spread that the company is thinking of folding up, leaving union members on the chopping block with no options, intense flairs, when scabs (nonunion workers) cross the lines. The changing trajectory of each worker's life and the human costs and fears regarding the loss and reduction of their job brings about racial hatred.
Playwright Lynn Nottage's play 'SWEAT' is a riveting and persuasive story of how greed can corrupt civilization. Pitting workers against each other, we witness the declination of a close-knit group of diverse friends, Cynthia, Tracey, and Jessie. They find themselves in a situation that destroys their trust when one of them is promoted, causing envy.
The play starts in reverse chronology with Evan, a parole officer, discussing with two younger generational plant workers, the sons of Tracey and Cynthia, Jason (Gage Wallace), and Chris (Emmanuel K Jackson). Jason, who has white supremacist tattoos on his forehead and a black eye, lashes out at Evan when pushed to describe what happened or discuss his future plans. Evan, then meets with Chris, a bible-toting reformed prisoner who was once close friends with Jason. Both reluctantly tell their story to the officer about their current situation, their brief encounter, and the horrific events that caused them to be imprisoned.
However, the main story centers around union members Cynthia, Tracey, and Jessie, friends who regularly meet at the bar managed by Stan( Randy Steinmeyer). It's Tracey's birthday, so the girls meet, drink, and share old stories until Cythnia's husband Brucie (Joshua L. Green), who she threw out of the house, interrupts the fun. Brucie was also a proud union member is on the line, protesting for 93 weeks, and the stress and anxieties of not knowing if they will ever get back their jobs have changed him. He is now addicted to drugs, stealing, and borrowing from anyone to help deal with this stress.
When word gets out that an open supervisor position is available, both Cynthia (Shariba Rivers) and Tracey (Linda Gillum) apply. But when Tracey loses out to Cynthia for the job, she unleashes her rage on her longtime friend, as Tracey has been at the company longer than Cynthia feels she is more qualified. Disappointed with Tracey's treatment, she comforts her friend, telling her she should talk to her instead of bad-mouthing her to other employees. However, instead of relishing her new position off the line, Cynthia feels used as a scapegoat by the plant. When she informs her friends regarding the demands of the plant to cut the salaries to keep their jobs, and they refuse to accept, they are locked out.
People are calling Cynthia a traitor. And when Tracey and Jessie (Tiffany Bedwell) come late to her birthday celebration and demand her to walk out with them, or they will consider her a traitor, she lashes out, telling them she has worked too hard to lose everything just for friendship. But, with the pressure of life bearing down on them all, the question is, can these long-standing friendships survive?
Sweat makes you feel every aspect of the fate and fears regarding each character's future by shining a light on how we look at each other and how quickly we can turn against one another when life makes us Sweat!
Although having multiple storylines can be confusing in a play, playwright Lynn Nottage, with Andrea J. Dymond's direction, did a superb job telling their stories while bringing them all together in this corporational drama. All of the characters in this play were great, but I felt Gage Wallace's performance as Jason and Emmanuel K Jackson as Chris was the most impactful.
Sweat's morality is subjugated by generations of white privilege and membership, looking after its rewards and preventing majorities and immigrants from reaping any benefits. Sweat deals with these privileged and unprivileged workers detailing how living with or without privileges can, without warning, alter and change our lives. It is through flashbacks' SWEAT' unfolds and tells the story of how friends end up as enemies caught up in the economic demise of deindustrialization at its worst!
Let's Play 'Recommend' that you check out 'SWEAT' at Copley Theatre.
Copley Theatre Presents
SWEAT
BY LYNN NOTTAGE
DIRECTED Andrea J Dymond
Now - April 24, 2022
Running time: 2 hours, 25 minutes
