Sweat tells a timely story that is made all the more effective from its strong perspective and sensational performances.
Though Sweat, Lynn Nottage’s Pulitzer-Prize winning play that opened this Spring, takes place in the dawn and wake of the Bush presidency (2000 and 2008), its relevance to our current political climate is palpable. The play is set mostly in a bar in Reading, Pennsylvania where workers at the local steel mill gather to talk trash and let off steam from their long hours at work. And while this local haunt starts off as a place of refuge, it quickly becomes a battleground for the war to come.
It was a brave choice to bring a very Middle America story to the liberal mecca of New York. However, more than anything, this play taps into the anger that has been sweeping the districts that put Donald Trump in the White House. At one point, a character proclaims that he has decided not to vote in the 2000 Presidential election because he’s choosing between the lesser of two evils — that line received an audible reaction from the audience. It’s at moments like those where Sweat justifies its existence.
Nottage, who also won the Pulitzer in 2009 for her play Ruined, builds the relationship between the characters beautifully. At the center are long time friends Tracey (Johanna Day, who give a steely and passionate performance) and Cynthia (Michelle Wilson, who quickly wins over the audience with her sincerity) — both of whom were nominated for the Tony for Best Featured Actress in a Play — who work at the town’s steel factory alongside their friend Jessie (Allison Wright). The trio has been bonded by their experience at the factory where they have worked since high school. Each woman gets her moment to tell the audience their background with their “how I got here” monologue. While they’re heavy-handed, it is certainly a worthy way of getting the audience to understand what happens to inhabitants of these towns. They aspire for more, but in the end, they work for the factory like their parents and their grandparents.
Tracey and Cynthia’s sons, Jason (Will Pullen, a real standout) and Chris (Khris Davis), respectively, also work at the factory, though Chris has aspirations outside of the town. The story is framed by their story 8 years later when the two are paroled for a crime that becomes the central mystery of the show. Before flashing back to 2000 where the main action of the story takes place, Chris describes seeing Jason — covered in tattoos including a swastika — for the first time on the street after all these years. He describes his body’s reaction as a violent one — teeth clenched, hands balled into fists — before saying that before he realizes what’s happening, they’re hugging. Sweat tells the story of a tight-knit community that becomes unraveled when empathy goes out the door. Over several months in 2000, Cynthia gets a promotion at the factory, which strains her relationship with Tracey — she eventually starts gossiping that Cynthia only received the promotion because she is black —, the factory begins layoffs, and the community is thrown into a racially charged turmoil.
Nottage lets the show thrive in the emotionally charged arguments between the characters that eerily echo our current political climate. Everything from the outsourcing of manufacturing work, unions, the sweeping drug epidemic in our lowest-income communities are covered. Although the focus is on these characters, to both the advantage and detriment, that message is what hits home. Sweat shows us what can happen, especially in a community like Reading, when we refuse to see a situation from another’s perspective. And in the end, it’s a brilliant mix of conservative feelings told in a socially progressive way. Nottage has a clear message. In order to thrive, we have to acknowledge each other. If we don’t participate in that social contract our nation is going to fail.
8/10
Sweat is playing at the Studio 54 theater on Broadway!
Hey, I'm Karl, founder and film critic at Smash Cut. I started Smash Cut in 2014 to share my love of movies and give a perspective I haven't yet seen represented. I'm also an editor at The New York Times, a Rotten Tomatoes-approved critic, and a member of the Online Film Critics Society.