By Chuck Graham, TucsonStage.com
photo by Tim Fuller
From left, Jessie (Chelsea Bowdren), Tracey (Cynthia Jeffery), Stan (Matt Walley) and Cynthia (Carley Elizabeth Preston).
The powerful yet invisible forces of national economics and human nature clash on The Rogue Theatre's stage in playwright Lynn Nottage's “Sweat,” winner of the Pulitzer Prize for Drama in 2017.
This intense production directed by Cynthia Meier goes straight to the heart of Charles Dickens' own novels describing London's forgotten people, destroying each other in their own frustration and helplessness.
Or as Meier noted in the theater program “Terry Teachout in the Wall Street Journal wrote this headline: “The Play That Explains Trump's Win.”
Truly “Sweat” does exactly that. Set in Reading, Pennsylvania, during the first decade of the 21st century – when Dow Jones recorded a 617-point drop as the tech bubble burst – factory jobs were evaporating like summer mud puddles as profit-driven corporations moved their assembly lines to Mexico and other countries.
Meier wrote that Reading in those years was declared the poorest small city in the nation.
Nottage quickly puts a human face on this misery, taking us straight into the conflicts at one neighborhood bar. Through this dim atmosphere of stale beer and cigarette smoke, anyone who had a job was looked at suspiciously by the others.
At the knotty center of this emotional bind is Matt Walley as Stan, the voluble bartender who must stay friends with everyone, from the desperate faces he has known for years to the more favored ones who stay employed, counting off the time until they can retire with a pension.
In this bar, Stan becomes a Pope-like figure who must not take sides. He wants to be friends, no matter who wins. It is a brilliant performance by Walley.
Oscar (Lucas Gonzales) is the assistant bartender, who only wants to keep a low profile.
Chris (Lance Guzman) is the regular who knows he must somehow get some college education to get out of town where the real jobs are.
Hunter Hnat is the defiant, punkish rebel Jason. He refuses to play the behave-yourself game even though he has no job and no future.
Bruce (Steve Waite) lost the defiance game years ago. His wasted life represents the future that's waiting for the others.
Both sad and successful are the three female friends: Cynthia (Carley Elizabeth Preston), Tracey (Cynthia Jeffrey) and Jessie (Chelsea Bowdren).
Cynthia not only has a job but gets a promotion into management, earning suspicion and hatred from her lifetime friends. Tracey is the strong one who wants to take a stand for fairness. Jessie, much like Oscar, just wants to get along.
Evan (Victor Bowleg) completes the cast as a government official.
There are no heroes, no blue collar commanders to save the day. The big bosses who run the company are never seen, but they aren't evil – exactly. They are only trying to survive, too.
Just like the meat grinder which can't be blamed for grinding up the meat. It was only doing what it was designed to do.
In a town like Tucson, “Sweat” plays with a particular poignancy. We know these people. We are these people. There will be plenty to ponder while driving home from The Rogue Theatre.
“Sweat” continues through Sept. 25 with performances at 7:30 p.m. Thursdays-Saturdays, plus 2 p.m. matinees Saturdays-Sundays, in The Rogue Theatre, 300 E. University Blvd. The run time is 2:20, including intermission. For details, www.theroguetheatre.org
Tickets are $42 general admission. All tickets must be purchased in advance. When available, $15 student rush tickets go on sale 15 minutes before curtain.
COVID policy requires audience members to be masked. The actors are not masked.
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