by It’s probably more coincidence than design that three recent Pulitzer Prize-winning dramas were released in Sydney in one week. In Belvoir there is Tracy Letts’ August: Osage County; at the Seymour Center Matthew Lopéz’s seven-hour epic “The Inheritance”; and at the Wharf Theater a play that, according to the Wall Street Journal, “declares Trump’s victory” in 2016.
Written by African-American playwright Lynn Nottage, “Sweat” is set in Reading, Pennsylvania (one of those swing-state voting districts we watched so closely a few weeks ago). The majority of the action takes place in a bar that has been the social meeting place for workers at a steel pipe factory for decades. It’s a place where everyone knows your name – and where everyone knows your damn business, whether you like it or not.
Aside from an introductory scene (revisited later) set in a probation office in 2008, “Sweat” takes place at the turn of the millennium. George W. Bush is president; September 11th is still a year away and the two young men we met in the probation office – Jason (James Fraser) and Chris (Tinashe Mangwana) – are best friends, as are their mothers Tracy (Lisa McCune) and Cynthia ( Paula). Arundell).
Related: August: Review of Osage County – Pamela Rabe leads the all-star cast in an American tragicomedy
Life was, on the whole, pretty good for these proud workers. Working in a unionized workplace ensures a living wage, decent conditions and stability. Tracy and Cynthia have worked in the same workshop for more than 20 years, just like their parents before them. Bartender Stan (Yure Covich) also worked there until a broken machine tore off a piece of his leg. Their jobs are who they are.
But a storm is coming. One of the bar’s regulars just burned down his own house and tried to shoot himself. Stan reports that another guy “found out they were cutting his management at the plant…Couldn’t handle the stress.”
Cynthia calls bullshit. “That’s what you keep telling yourself,” Stan counters. “You could wake up tomorrow and all your jobs are in Mexico, whatever, that’s this NAFTA bullshit.”
“What the hell is NAFTA?” Tracy laughs. “Sounds like a laxative!”
A managerial position at the plant had just become available, and line workers like Tracy and Cynthia were being invited to apply for the first time. For Tracy, it’s a total no-fuckin’ route: getting involved as an employee would be a betrayal. But for Cynthia, whose father was denied employment in the days when unions were decidedly racist, it’s up a ladder and out, and she accepts it.
She soon finds out why the bosses upstairs want a worker in the workshop. Cynthia is paid to be her firewall, the bearer of bad news. As money becomes tighter and the mood in the city sours, old friendships are torn apart, scapegoats are sought and racism rears its head.
Nottage makes everything seem pretty clear. Stripped of their safety, working-class workers will compete against each other, vying for points in a rigged game. And if all you want to do is lose, why not burn down your own house?
As a sociological snapshot it makes sense, but “Sweat” isn’t always a compelling drama. Sometimes it comes to mind like an essay; Its characters resemble case studies (they are the result of research and interviews conducted in Reading by Nottage).
That impression is reinforced by a Sydney Theater Company production that looks great (a classic American tavern set by designer Jeremy Allen, built into an angled proscenium somewhat reminiscent of Edward Hopper’s “Nighthawks”) but still lacks rhythm and those gear changes has not found can snap an audience out of complacent observation.
Under director Zindzi Okenyo, everyone looks good and hits their marks, but Nottage’s expository speeches still feel more like a page than a stage. The underlying idea is seriousness and the play’s spiral into toxicity and violence is mechanical.
McCune is solid and so is Covich. There’s good work from Markus Hamilton (so good in STC’s “Fences”) as Brucie, Cynthia’s drug-addicted ex-partner, and Gabriel Alvarado as Oscar, the quiet Colombian-American who works for Stan and later takes the opportunity to work with him to work factory that has so far closed its doors to the people of his community. Deborah Galanos gives a good drunken performance as Tracy and Cynthia’s drunken friend, Jessie.
The show’s biggest asset is Arundell, who, as almost always, has an electrifying presence. Her Cynthia is the only character who is convincing in a show where some readings seem overloaded for a large audience. I suspect that Sweat would be better received in a captivating production in a small theater.
