Last week, I was fortunate enough to see Lynn Nottage’s Sweat at CapStage. Sweat won the 2017 Pulitzer, and Michael Stevenson’s production is the Sacramento Premiere.
We start with a functional if imperfect community–generations have been employed by the local mill–there’s time for a drink with friends after a long day on the line.
But then the company wants to take advantage of the North American Free Trade Agreement, using the threat of closing to hurt their workers and destroy their union.
Unfortunately, this pits worker against worker, as they try to survive.
I don’t come from a mill town, but this story is still familiar. In the South, we don’t have unions–people have been able to stoke racial prejudice to keep it from happening. “It’s not that we’re exploiting you,” the rich company says. “The blacks/hispanics/immigrants that are the reason you’re poor and poorly treated.” Even when I worked full-time for a major research university there, I didn’t get benefits.
UC Davis lured me here easily, with the promise of health insurance. The union had demanded it. Right now, my union is fighting with the university for me, but the threat of us turning on each other is there.
It’s easy to see why this play won a Pulitzer–it captures us. That’s why it fits so well in CapStage’s season, #SearchingforAmerica.
It’s a heartwrenching/heartwarming story, with just enough moments of humor to help us look into the mirror it holds up to us.
The staging is simple and effective, and the acting is so beautifully done, the characters so realistic, that you half expect to see them on the line at the mill the next day.
Sweat runs through November 19th–don’t miss it.
