Sweat - Sydney Theatre Company (NSW)

Written by Lynn Nottage. Directed by Zindzi Okenyo

Confident direction brings sharp social commentary with stunning performances in Nottage's award-winning piece

Review by Kate Gaul

Wharf One, Sydney Theatre Company

Until 22nd December, 2024

Tickets: https://www.sydneytheatre.com.au/whats-on/productions/2024/sweat

Lynn Nottage is one of America’s most important political playwrights and so it is an absolute treat to see Sydney Theatre Company finally tackle her 2015 play Sweat. It portrays a meeting between a parole officer and two ex-convicts, and three women who were childhood friends and had worked in the same factory. 

Most of the action takes place in a fictional bar in Pennsylvania beautifully designed by Jeremy Allen. When the scenes shift briefly to other locations and other time periods some classy lighting solutions (Verity Hampson) help guide the way.

We meet a group of friends that work for the steel factory, named Tracey, Cynthia and Jessie. Tracey is a middle-aged woman played with both guts and glory by Lisa McCune. She loves to hang out at the bar with her friends and cannot stand the way Reading begins to change. Her friend Cynthia (a spectacular Paula Arundell in this production) also loves to hang out at the bar and is a hardworking woman in the factory. She is on and off with her addict husband, Brucie (played here with genuine pathos by Markus Hamilton). Jessie completes the trio, an equal parts hilarious and scary Deborah Galanos.  The play is partly detailing the disintegration of these relationships.

Sweat, Sydney Theatre Company (2024). Images by Prudence Upton

Everyone has their own problems and bar man Stan hears and sees it all. Yure Covich shines in this central role. Gabriel Alvarado plays Oscar, a bar busboy. Oscar is Colombian and is usually not even acknowledged by the characters in this play. As tensions rise in the town due to closures and increased fear of migrants, you just know there will be trouble and boy, what a climax. Alvarado impressed in Ensemble’s Clydes and is just as exceptional here. They are definitely one to watch!

And then there is Jason, Tracey's son (a strong James Fraser who was deliciously good in STC’s Appropriate). His best friend is Chris, Cynthia’s son (Newcomer Tinashe Mangwana who has talent by the bucket load). They both work at the factory and hold concerns they will be laid off. They are both arrested for assault and are released eight years later. Hence the time shifts and changes as we go back and forth over the how’s and whys.

Director Zindzi Okenyo has assembled a brilliant team and directs with confidence.

Director Zindzi Okenyo has assembled a brilliant team and directs with confidence. Variety described Nottage as taking us deep into "the heart of working-class America". Reviews of the play have described how she tackles the devastating impact of loss of work and of de-industrialisation on modern America. Based on extensive interviews with residents of the rustbelt town of Reading, Pennsylvania, it shows the anger and despair that helped fuel the election of Donald Trump. These characters as representing blue-collar workers who voted in Donald Trump as president the first time around. Behind the play’s 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.

I found the play engrossing and the production splendid. In this current climate of debate around which artist can tell which story it was a pleasant change to simply sit in the theatre and empathise with lives unlike mine and wonder at the rich seam of American playwrighting that throws up such gems.

Sweat is highly recommended!

---

Director Zindzi Okenyo

Designer Jeremy Allen

Lighting Designer Verity Hampson

Composer & Sound Designer Brendon Boney

Associate Director Ian Michael

Fight Director Tim Dashwood

Consent Consultant & Intimacy Coordinator Bayley Turner

Dialect Coach Rachel Finley 

WithGabriel Alvarado, Paula Arundell, Yure Covich, James Fraser, Deborah Galanos, Markus Hamilton, Tinashe Mangwana, Lisa McCune.

Marketing image Rene Vaile