SJM-L-SWEAT-0405-01
There’s a lot of humor in Lynn Nottage’s “Sweat,” but it packs a truly devastating wallop, and Center Repertory Company’s production at Walnut Creek’s Lesher Center for the Arts doesn’t pull any punches.
Set mostly in 2000 with framing sequences in 2008, “Sweat” explores the human cost of the collapse of U.S. factory towns, with generations-long, union-protected jobs suddenly dissolving as work is shipped out of the country. The play almost all takes place in a bar where steelworkers hang out. Even the bartender worked on the factory floor for decades until a work-related injury took him out.
Commissioned as part of Oregon Shakespeare Festival’s “American Revolutions: The United States History Cycle,” “Sweat” premiered at OSF in 2015 and went on to hit runs off- and on Broadway. It won the 2017 Pulitzer Prize for Drama, making Nottage the only woman so far to have won two drama Pulitzers. (She won the first in 2009 for “Ruined,” which played Berkeley Repertory Theatre in 2011.) American Conservatory Theater first brought “Sweat” to the Bay Area in 2018.
This January, Berkeley Rep staged “Clyde’s,” which isn’t a sequel per se but features one of the characters from “Sweat,” the first time there’s been that kind of overlap between any of Nottage’s plays. “Clyde’s” was named by American Theatre magazine as the most produced play in U.S. theaters this season, and “Sweat” was the fifth most produced in the same period.
Center Rep’s production had to be postponed a week because of illnesses in the company, so Sunday’s matinee was only the second performance in front of an audience. Despite a few very brief delays in picking up cues that will surely tighten up in no time, director Elizabeth Carter’s crisp and nuanced production is marvelously powerful, with a terrific cast.
Kelly James Tighe’s set is fantastic, a fully realized, realistic bar behind a corrugated metal factory wall covered with faded advertisements recalling more prosperous days for the community of Reading, Pennsylvania.
Cathleen Riddley is palpably torn in several directions as Cynthia, a factory worker aiming to become a manager. Fun-loving with her friends, she’s also struggling with terrible workplace changes and a difficult breakup with her husband, Brucie.
Michael J. Asberry embodies a potent mixture of amiability, despair and the jitters as Brucie, who’s long been locked out on strike from his own factory job and is fighting what seems to be a losing battle with drug addiction.
Lisa Anne Porter is electric with energy as Cynthia’s best friend and coworker Tracey, which is a lot of fun when they’re carousing but downright dangerous when cooler heads are needed. The fact that Cynthia is African American and Tracey is white suddenly creates friction when Tracey becomes jealous of Cynthia’s promotion.
We know from the start that the story is leading up to why two young men just got out of prison after eight years. Adam KuveNiemann is a volatile bundle of hostile energy as Jason, Tracey’s son, his face covered with neo-Nazi prison tattoos, and Eddie Ewell is thoughtful but also visibly shaken as Cynthia’s son Chris. David Everett Moore is a wonderfully grounded presence as their sympathetic parole officer, going back and forth between the two in separate scenes staged side by side. The younger Chris and Jason are raucous and inseparable, though there are always signs that Chris is the more conscientious of the pair.
Robert Parsons is all easygoing camaraderie and helpful advice as bartender Stan, and Roman Anthony Gonzalez observes everything in slightly sullen silence as Oscar, the Colombian American busboy who keeps getting the brushoff when he asks after jobs at the plant. Maryssa Wanlass is amusingly woozy as Jessica, Cynthia and Tracey’s hard-drinking buddy who’s often passed out at her table.
Tragedy looms large in this play, and nothing goes well for anyone. Still, it leaves you with an almost irrational glimmer of hope. Despite everything, even when the obstacles seem insurmountable, people seem to find a way of carrying on.
Contact Sam Hurwitt at shurwitt@gmail.com, and follow him at Twitter.com/shurwitt.
‘SWEAT’
By Lynn Nottage, presented by Center Repertory Company
Through: April 16
Where: Lesher Center for the Arts, 1601 Civic Drive, Walnut Creek
Running time: Two hours and 55 minutes, one intermission
Tickets: $45-$70; 925-943-7469, www.lesherartscenter.org
Originally published at Sam Hurwitt, Correspondent