Lynn Nottage

Wow. This was an incredible and intense play. I don’t usually read plays, but I’m really glad I read this one. When our lives are so often when our lives are so often controlled by economic forces beyond ourselves, this play explores those effects. This is a powerful story about how different lives intersect, when the going gets tough. It’s about how they respond to those outside forces, and about how they figure out what to do or what not to do. Really, really powerful. I would love show more to see this produced. show less

This is a remarkably powerful play about a group of blue-collar friends in Reading PA as they face the prospect of deindustrialization. The play takes place during the years 2000 and 2008 with each scene taking place on a different date. Each scene is set with a news announcement about what is happening in the news, particularly the elections of 2000 and 2008. The factory where they work is locking-out the workers and demanding that they take a big cut in pay in order to keep their jobs. show more This blow to their existence brings out lots of tensions between the characters. show less

Lynn Nottage's two-act play Sweat is set in Reading, Pennsylvania, one of the poorest cities in the US. Most of the play is set in 2000 with only a couple of scenes set in 2008 to show what happened to the characters. The cast of nine characters tend to meet in a bar, where they discuss their lives, their jobs and their daily struggle of making a living in an economic crisis. Most of the characters are middle class American citizens from different backgrounds. With some characters being show more white, some black and one Hispanic character, race is an issue as well. Who is taking away jobs in a city that does not have to offer much in the way of prosperity anyway? Who is willing to accept lower wages? How does NAFTA affect factory workers? Is the American Dream still alive? Among others, these are the questions that are explored in the play.

The play was highly successful and staged on Broadway in 2017. It earned Nottage a Pulitzer Prize for Drama. I liked how Sweat portrays the life on main street and the attainability of key values of the American Dream such as the pursuit of happiness and upward mobility. I would really like to get my hands on a recording of a performance of the play. 4.5 stars. show less

This is a captivating play that deftly handles many issues of current day American struggles including race, loss of jobs, the plight of the middle class and immigration . The play takes place in Reading, Pa. which serves as a symbol for every town USA. The core characters are regulars at a local bar where they share both the good and bad times. The play is wonderfully realistic in its portrayal of human behavior and I can see why it received all the acclaim that it did.