[4] The play was produced off-Broadway in 2016, and on-Broadway in 2017. The play was produced Off-Broadway in 2016 and on Broadway in 2017. Their fathers and grandfathers, spouses, and everyone else in this small Pennsylvania town have grown up working on the plant floor, including Tracey and Cynthia's respective sons, Jason and Chris. Ive absorbed a lotta shit over the years, but I worked hard to get off that floor. Oscar now works there as the manager, and he takes care of Stan, who we find out has suffered a traumatic brain injury as a result of the fight. The New Yorker said the play was "the first theatrical landmark of the Trump era". The themes in Sweat are timeless, and the play is a microcosm of today's issues relating to poverty, race, and discrimination. Similarly, when Cynthia earns a promotion from floor worker to Warehouse Supervisor at Olsteads, Tracey becomes spiteful and downright crueleven though she, too, applied for the job. She used these substances as coping mechanisms which also led her to say racist comments about her own friend. Tracey talks about an upcoming promotion at work and how there is a rumor that they want to promote someone from the floor to a manager position. Lynn Nottage, originally born and raised in Brooklyn, New York produced the award-winning play, Sweat. Their decades-long friendship ends in a seemingly insurmountable grudge, a heartbreaking reality that drives home the pain, jealousy, and hostility that can come about when one friend feels left behind by another. The bar itself is symbolic of the friendships that play out within it, as both the place and the relationships it facilitates are safe havens away from the stress of the outside world. My students love how organized the handouts are and enjoy tracking the themes as a class., Requesting a new guide requires a free LitCharts account. Ed. The sense of personal betrayal is exacerbated when it is left to Cynthia to reveal that the firm plans to ask everyone to take a 60% pay cut to save the plant. Essay Example: What Is The Theme Of Sweat By Lynn Nottage Sweat was a meaningful production as there are many important themes to take away from the story. Find related themes, quotes, symbols, characters, and more. This specific scene supports how the usage of alcohol as a prop was continually utilized as a coping mechanism for many characters. [13] The production closed on June 25, 2017, after 105 performances. "My students can't get enough of your charts and their results have gone through the roof." Oscar shows her a flyer from the community center, written in Spanish, that mentions the openings and says nothing about needing to be in the union. In this breathtaking new play, premiered in 2015, she tackles the devastating impact of loss of work and of de-industrialisation on modern America. He finds out through his Latino network that the plant is hiring, which the owners have hidden from the other workers. Media Inquiries: 540-232-8574,jennykb@vt.edu, Alumni Relations:540-231-8364,robynes@vt.edu Behind the plays portrayal of the damage done to individual lives by what Nottage calls the American de-industrial revolution lies a wider picture of collapsing hopes and corporate ruthlessness. [5] She has compared her time talking to former steelworkers in Reading with the occasion when she stayed in the town of Mansfield in the English Midlands and interviewed workers during the 1984 miners' strike. Stan tries to stop it but ends up getting hit. [5] Nottage herself even spoke at the strike, which is what made her realize she had to do more. Oscar and his coworker Stan (the bartender at the bar where the characters all hang out) are attacked in a demonstration. 199 Chambers Street Teach your students to analyze literature like LitCharts does. Seeing the effects of job loss and the economic struggle these people were facing first hand is what truly inspired her work for the play Sweat. Detailed quotes explanations with page numbers for every important quote on the site. Complete your free account to request a guide. The resonance and relevance is immediate, as we rehearsed throughout what has come to be called Striketober 2021. Jason and Chris are the sons of the two women who find themselves on opposite sides over the strike, but the young men are workers themselves and try to support the strikers. Admissions Themes and Colors LitCharts assigns a color and icon to each theme in Sweat, which you can use to track the themes throughout the work. By using it, you accept our. A lot of wrong things can be said under the influence, and I believe most of their arguments all began with the abuse of alcohol. Scene 1 of Act 2 shows Jason and Chris returning to visit their mothers. But when . Of the performances, Coleman and Hochman remarkably deviate from sullen and washed-out in their 2008 scenes, to rambunctious, youthful, and optimistic in 2000. PDF downloads of all 1699 LitCharts literature guides, and of every new one we publish. An immediate divide is created between Cynthia and her friends. grounds " Sweat " , emphasizing it 's the everyday - nature of the plays themes . The bartender is Stan, who used to work at the factory with them until he suffered an injury. The citation above will include either 2 or 3 dates. John Earl Jelks is heartbreaking as Chris's father, a maddened drug addict who has lost the respect of his family. THEMEGUIDE KNOW BEFORE THE SHOW o Playwright Lynn Nottage was born in Brooklyn in 1964 and was educated at Brown University and the Yale School of Drama. As the months of 2000 pass, the relationships that create the foundation of Sweat begin to unravel and we come to see the events that led Chris and Jason, two best buds with exuberance for their future, to wind up in prison. The play opens in 2008. For online purchase, find ticket links here. Complimentary and Deeply Discounted Shows. Complete your free account to access notes and highlights, close friends whove shared many adventures, (Points to the skin on the back of her hand). Instant PDF downloads. She loves to hang out at the bar with her friends and she has a gruff kind of humor. Sweat is preceded by an excerpt from Langston Hughess Let America Be America Again, a poem that critiques the false promise of the American Dream and encourages poor and working-class Americans (among other marginalized groups) to rise up and make America againessentially to redeem the oppression theyve faced and the opportunities theyve been cheated out of. Mara plays Tracey as a shrill woman who is looking for others to blame. Award-winning playwright Lynn Nottage often shines a spotlight on Black women under great duress, as in "Ruined," a Pulitzer Prize winner, or in the workplace like the evocative turn of the . TRACEY: Well, I got you beat by two. Refine any search. At the beginning of 2000, every character is either part of the working class or experiencing the repercussions of union strikes. The Virginia Tech School of Performing Arts will present Lynn Nottages award-winning Sweat for eight performances, opening on Nov. 9 in Squires Studio Theatre. You hear from the old gang? (including. LitCharts Teacher Editions. What statements does this play Sweatmake about racism and racial tension in the United States? The play portrays a meeting between a parole officer and two ex-convicts, and three women who were childhood . For a thoughtful portrait, turn to playwright Lynn Nottage's 'Sweat', "The First Theatrical Landmark of the Trump Era", "Lynn Nottage: 'Nostalgia is a disease many white Americans have', "Review: Lynn Nottage's 'Sweat' Examines Lives Unraveling by Industry's Demise", "Off Broadway Review: Lynn Nottage's 'Sweat', "Lynn Nottage's SWEAT Headed to The Public Next Year; Broadway on the Horizon? Source: www.asolorep.org. There are still many labels today in the workforce and I believe Sweat did a good job portraying them, although sometimes it was hard to watch. Nottage began to write the play in 2011 and set its events during two notable economic downturns: the 2000 to 2001 recession following the dot com bubble and the Great Recession of 2007 to 2009. The characters in Sweat have spent decades of their lives thanklessly laboring in Reading Pennsylvanias local steel and textile mills amid poor working conditions, disrespectful management, and union disputes. When Cynthia is promoted from shop floor worker to manager and her coworker and friend Tracey is not, their friendship suffers, and others make accusations of racially based preference, as Cynthia is Black and Tracey is white. This website uses cookies to provide you with a great user experience. You're making the same sorry excuses that they do. Privacy Policy 2023 . In a sense, Reading represents a broader diminishment of the American middle class, a sector of the population whose once-reliable sources of worksuch as in factories and millshave been in decline in recent years. This kind of intimate friendship seems to be the norm rather than the exception in Reading: Traceys son Jason and Cynthias son Chris are also best friends who work at Olsteads and who depend on each other for solidarity and camaraderie. Nottage shifts in time, switching scenes and showing events of eight years earlier. Synopsis for SWEAT: SWEAT is a 2015 play by American playwright Lynn Nottage. Jump-start your essay with our outlining tool to make sure you have all the main points of your essay covered. These are only the main characters. Youve always been cool. As a community already steeped in tradition and resistant to outsiders, this downturn causes Readings white working class to become downright hostile toward black and Latinx peopleeven individuals they once called friendsbecause they believe minorities are stealing their jobs away. Download the entire Sweat study guide as a printable PDF! Detailed explanations, analysis, and citation info for every important quote on LitCharts. JASON: [] But seriously, man, why didnt you tell me? samples are real essays written by real students who kindly donate their papers to us so that LitCharts Teacher Editions. 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