There’s a whole lot of humor in Lynn Nottage’s “Sweat,” nevertheless it packs a very devastating wallop, and Middle Repertory Firm’s manufacturing at Walnut Creek’s Lesher Middle for the Arts doesn’t pull any punches.
Set principally in 2000 with framing sequences in 2008, “Sweat” explores the human price of the collapse of U.S. manufacturing facility cities, with generations-long, union-protected jobs instantly dissolving as work is shipped in another country. The play virtually all takes place in a bar the place steelworkers hang around. Even the bartender labored on the manufacturing facility flooring for many years till a work-related harm took him out.
Commissioned as a part of Oregon Shakespeare Competition’s “American Revolutions: The USA Historical past Cycle,” “Sweat” premiered at OSF in 2015 and went on to hit runs off- and on Broadway. It received the 2017 Pulitzer Prize for Drama, making Nottage the one lady to this point to have received two drama Pulitzers. (She received the primary in 2009 for “Ruined,” which performed Berkeley Repertory Theatre in 2011.) American Conservatory Theater first introduced “Sweat” to the Bay Space in 2018.
This January, Berkeley Rep staged “Clyde’s,” which isn’t a sequel per se however options one of many characters from “Sweat,” the primary time there’s been that sort of overlap between any of Nottage’s performs. “Clyde’s” was named by American Theatre journal as probably the most produced play in U.S. theaters this season, and “Sweat” was the fifth most produced in the identical interval.
Middle Rep’s manufacturing needed to be postponed every week due to sicknesses within the firm, so Sunday’s matinee was solely the second efficiency in entrance of an viewers. Regardless of a number of very transient delays in selecting up cues that may certainly tighten up very quickly, director Elizabeth Carter’s crisp and nuanced manufacturing is marvelously highly effective, with a terrific solid.
Kelly James Tighe’s set is improbable, a totally realized, practical bar behind a corrugated metallic manufacturing facility wall coated with pale ads recalling extra affluent days for the neighborhood of Studying, Pennsylvania.
Cathleen Riddley is palpably torn in a number of instructions as Cynthia, a manufacturing facility employee aiming to grow to be a supervisor. Enjoyable-loving along with her buddies, she’s additionally scuffling with horrible office modifications and a tough breakup along with her husband, Brucie.
Michael J. Asberry embodies a potent combination of amiability, despair and the jitters as Brucie, who’s lengthy been locked out on strike from his personal manufacturing facility job and is preventing what appears to be a shedding battle with drug habit.
Lisa Anne Porter is electrical with power as Cynthia’s greatest pal and coworker Tracey, which is a whole lot of enjoyable once they’re carousing however downright harmful when cooler heads are wanted. The truth that Cynthia is African American and Tracey is white instantly creates friction when Tracey turns into jealous of Cynthia’s promotion.
We all know from the beginning that the story is main as much as why two younger males simply acquired out of jail after eight years. Adam KuveNiemann is a unstable bundle of hostile power as Jason, Tracey’s son, his face coated with neo-Nazi jail tattoos, and Eddie Ewell is considerate but in addition visibly shaken as Cynthia’s son Chris. David Everett Moore is a splendidly grounded presence as their sympathetic parole officer, going forwards and backwards between the 2 in separate scenes staged facet by facet. The youthful Chris and Jason are raucous and inseparable, although there are all the time indicators that Chris is the extra conscientious of the pair.
Robert Parsons is all easygoing camaraderie and useful recommendation as bartender Stan, and Roman Anthony Gonzalez observes all the pieces in barely sullen silence as Oscar, the Colombian American busboy who retains getting the brushoff when he asks after jobs on the plant. Maryssa Wanlass is amusingly woozy as Jessica, Cynthia and Tracey’s hard-drinking buddy who’s typically handed out at her desk.
Tragedy looms giant on this play, and nothing goes properly for anybody. Nonetheless, it leaves you with an virtually irrational glimmer of hope. Regardless of all the pieces, even when the obstacles appear insurmountable, individuals appear to discover a approach of carrying on.
Contact Sam Hurwitt at shurwitt@gmail.com, and comply with him at Twitter.com/shurwitt.
‘SWEAT’
By Lynn Nottage, introduced by Middle Repertory Firm
By means of: April 16
The place: Lesher Middle for the Arts, 1601 Civic Drive, Walnut Creek
Operating time: Two hours and 55 minutes, one intermission
Tickets: $45-$70; 925-943-7469, www.lesherartscenter.org