Sweat
Written by Lynn Nottage
Directed by Kate Whoriskey
Studio 54
June 14, 2017
Production website
💉💉💉💉 out of 5.

Who actually are those people that voted for Trump as the President of the United States?  Who are those people?  Ironically in the liberal bastion that is New York we are given an answer.  Sweat focus on a small union-working collection of people in the heartland of the country. Their jobs are dependent on the manufacturing industry that is being so damaged by the NAFTA agreement that became such a contentious piece of legislation in the recent national election.  These people work hard.  They work hard for every penny they get – – and the union is their life blood.  Without the union, their world would shrivel up and die in a matter of days – – and it is this shriveling that is at the heart of the play.  Presented as a deadly realistic play, complete with a fully stocked bar and running water, we meet a sorted group of friends that have grown up together, work together, and get drunk as often as they can afford it.

Although brilliantly realistic, the language often finds its poetry as these simple people work to make sense of the world around them that is collapsing and offering them no rhyme or reason.  Drugs and violence are just around the corner.  Unemployment is knocking at the door   – – – and most tragically it is sometimes difficult to just be nice –  just to be a good neighbor and be nice.

The only criticism I have of the play – and it is a big one for me – is all of the stage violence at the end.  The violence is certainly needed for the story, but why do they have to show it on stage that makes it oh, so obvious that actors are faking their punches and faking their kicks.  It was so fake against the background of the realism of the rest of the play.  I wished this violence had been played behind the bar or behind the furniture where we could have heard it – but used our imagination in seeing it.  What we can imagine is much more frightening than what the best of fight choreographers can give us.