"Sweat" at Center Rep

Center Rep production photo by Kevin Berne

 I feel like I never know what I'm going to get at Center Rep. I've seen some really good shows there, and then some others that feel much more like community theater productions. So I can't say I pay much attention to their offerings most of the time.

But this time it was a combination of a play I really liked several years ago at Ashland (pre-blogging, sorry!) and a couple of my friends being in the cast. So we had to go check it out.

The Play

I mentioned playwright Lynn Nottage in my recent write-up of her recent play, Clyde's. She's a great writer, and it was my first viewing of this play that really made me believe that. All the characters are quite richly developed and genuinely interesting. The situation is, too. The play takes place mostly in the year 2000, when things are looking pretty rosy unless you happen to live in the industrial northeast, such as Reading, PA, where Sweat is set. There it's a matter of working-class people trying to hold on to what they've had, but it's tough with NAFTA and similar policies.

Sweat takes place in a bar in Reading, where workers from a nearby steel plant come to blow off steam. Even the bartender is a former plant employee. Times are pretty good, and both Cynthia and Tracey are angling for a promotion. Their sons, Chris and Jason, are lifelong buddies who also work at the same plant. Things are pretty friendly until one of the women actually does get promoted, which leads to some friction, and then bad news at the plant causes things to fray even further. It becomes clear just how close everyone is to the edge, as tensions break through the facade of camaraderie and reveal simmering resentments and prejudices.

It's a clever story, very real-feeling, and bolstered with sound clips from contemporary politics and news. It was totally deserving of the Pulitzer Prize for Drama it won in 2017 (Nottage's second).

The Production

Luckily, this was one of Center Rep's better efforts. From top to bottom, it's a first-class production: great cast, design, and direction. The set is very nicely designed by Kelly James Tighe, and director Elizabeth Carter keeps all of the excellent actors on the same page to great effect. The performances are almost uniformly excellent, with particular kudos to Cathleen Riddley (Cynthia) and Lisa Anne Porter (Tracey), who really nail the friend/rival aspect of the relationship, with Porter particularly nuanced and relatable in a tough role. Eddie Ewell (Chris) and Adam KuveNiemann (Jason) also bring it home for the younger generation, doing a great job of portraying the lifelong friends who can't quite figure out why the world isn't turning out for them they way they expected, and how that impacts their friendship. And Robert Parsons is pitch-perfect in his portrayal of Stan the bartender, wisely observing from the sidelines after being disabled on the job after 28 years on the floor at the steel plant.

I could go on, but I think you get the point: this is a top-notch production all around.

The Bottom Line

My only issues with the production are really just nitpicking, and it doesn't deserve that. Even with some small things, the overall production was amazingly good. I wish I could wholeheartedly recommend that you go see it, but unfortunately we saw the closing performance, so it's done.

I will say that Sweat remains as powerful as when I first saw it at OSF in 2015. I believe there have been changes to the script since then (or certainly, there are aspects of it that I don't recall from that viewing), but it's very, very good. The writing is incredible, and the performance here was just terrific.

I will be paying closer attention to Center Rep henceforth. If they keep attracting this level of talent and put on shows this solid, it has a chance to be a much bigger part of the bay area theater scene, which is a good thing, given the struggles of some of the other, more established houses of late.