Lynn Nottage's play Sweat arrives at the Gielgud for a limited season with a bucketful full of plaudits and awards /nominations. Her writing reflects the painstaking research and interviews with the people of Reading Pennsylvania USA, named in 2011 as the poorest city of its size in the nation and tells the story of a community torn apart by change around the year 2000 . It is easy to see why the story and its underlying messages appeal to such judges and major reviewers.
It deals with racial tensions and economic deprivation in the community largely from a working class point of view as friendships and families are torn apart by the local factory which has provided a lifetime of work to many in the city when it seeks to change the working conditions and pay of its workforce. It is easy to see the parallels with a divided U.K. whether the north/south divide or Brexit / no Brexit or left v right politics. The arguments are powerfully made but too often the speeches are like rebel rousing lecturers at a protest rally and get in the way of full character development.
