The Upcoming
  • Culture
    • Art
    • Cinema
      • Movie reviews
      • Film festivals
    • Food & Drinks
      • News & Features
      • Restaurant & bar reviews
      • Interviews & Recipes
    • Literature
    • Music
      • Live music
    • Theatre
    • Shows & On demand
  • Fashion & Lifestyle
    • Accessories
    • Beauty
    • News & Features
    • Shopping & Trends
    • Tips & How-tos
    • Fashion weeks
  • What’s On
    • Art exhibitions
    • Theatre shows
  • Tickets
  • Join us
    • Editorial unit
    • Our writers
    • Join the team
    • Join the mailing list
    • Support us
    • Contact us
  • Interviews
  • Competitions
  • Special events
    • Film festivals
      • Berlin
      • Tribeca
      • Sundance London
      • Cannes
      • Locarno
      • Venice
      • London
      • Toronto
    • Fashion weeks
      • London Fashion Week
      • New York Fashion Week
      • Milan Fashion Week
      • Paris Fashion Week
      • Haute Couture
      • London Fashion Week Men’s
  • Facebook

  • Twitter

  • Instagram

  • YouTube

  • RSS

CultureTheatre

Sweat at Gielgud Theatre

Sweat at Gielgud Theatre | Theatre review
12 June 2019
Connor Campbell
Avatar
Connor Campbell
12 June 2019

There are Trump plays. There are Brexit plays. And then there are those plays that effortlessly capture an economic and societal landscape – the unravelling of communities, the seeds of racist populism and the perpetual con of capitalism – without needing to lick the boots of the zeitgeist, safe in the knowledge that the personal is always political.

Mostly taking place in the long year of George W Bush’s election – with a series of important scenes during the apex of the financial crisis sprinkled throughout – Sweat could be set in any one of those destitute manufacturing towns that were once the heart of the US (and UK) but are now graveyards of rust. Ending every day as bar props, Tracey (Martha Plimpton) and Cynthia (Clare Perkins) work the line at the local factory. Like every generation, their sons Jason (Patrick Gibson) and Chris (Osy Ikhile) do the same. But when Cynthia gets promoted off the floor, and the union starts to get squeezed, things fall apart. Half a life of service – and friendship – dismantled overnight.

The white rush of supremacy immediately asserts itself when the proverbial hits the fan, slurs tossed out and fingers pointed. The casual racism of Plimpton’s tough, protective Tracey becomes more and more calcified the worse things get. Her son leaves prison stained with the markings of the Aryan Brotherhood. It’s an example of the white working class opting for a false racial fealty instead of tackling the true reasons behind their financial struggles, a trend seen time and again in the last decade.

Lynn Nottage would be forgiven for making her white characters the bad guys. Instead, she is remarkably even-handed, constantly aware of the economic peril everyone is in. The bigger villains lurk off stage. Their presence is always felt, but only really seen in the suits Cynthia briefly wears and the flashes of politicians on the bar’s TV screen.

The bar itself is buried at the heart of a towering abandoned factory. Not only does Frankie Bradshaw’s design act as a reminder of the industrial ruin facing the barflies but provides an air of hip gentrification that is inevitably in the future of such locations.

It shows that this production is a transfer. Director Lynette Linton and her impeccable cast bring a real sense of history and weight to the play’s relationships. You feel the quarter of a decade of memories that sit between Tracey and Cynthia, the brotherly bond of Jason and Chris. Bartender Stan (Stuart McQuarrie) is the glue holding the group together when times are at their most fractious. It is through the shared lives of these characters that the politics of the piece emerge. And unlike dramas that more keenly try and chase the present moment, ten, twenty, thirty years from now it will be no less a great piece of theatre because of it.

★★★★★

Connor Campbell
Photo: Johan Persson

Sweat is at Gielgud Theatre from 7th June until 20th July 2019. For further information or to book visit the theatre’s website here.

Related Itemsfeaturedreview

More in Theatre

Live Lab at The Yard Theatre: An interview with associate director Cheryl Gallagher

Mersa Auda
Read More

We Still Fax at ANTS Theatre Online

★★★★★
Samuel Nicholls
Read More

We Ask These Questions of Everybody: An interview with Amble Skuse and Toria Banks

Mersa Auda
Read More

Public Domain at Southwark Playhouse

★★★★★
Michael Higgs
Read More

Unlimited Festival at the Southbank Centre: Centre stage for diversity

★★★★★
James Humphrey
Read More

RSC Next Generation: Young Bloods proves Shakespeare is timeless

Brooke Snowe
Read More

An interview with Ifrah Ismael: Tales from the Front Line and other stories

Selina Begum
Read More

A Livestream with David Bedella at Crazy Coqs Online

★★★★★
Regan Harle
Read More

Undercover at Morpheus Show Online

★★★★★
Michael Higgs
Read More
Scroll for more
Tap

Theatre review

Connor Campbell

Sweat

★★★★★

Dates

7th June - 20th July 2019

Price

From £17.25

Links & directions

TwitterInstagramFacebookWebsiteMap

  • Popular

  • Latest

  • TOP PICKS

  • Female filmmakers lead nominees for the London Critics’ Circle Film Awards
    Cinema
  • An interview with Ifrah Ismael: Tales from the Front Line and other stories
    Theatre
  • Persian Lessons
    ★★★★★
    Cinema
  • Jeremiah Fraites – Piano Piano
    ★★★★★
    Album review
  • Lonely the Brave – The Hope List
    ★★★★★
    Album review
  • 23 Walks
    ★★★★★
    Cinema
  • Live Lab at The Yard Theatre: An interview with associate director Cheryl Gallagher
    Theatre
  • We Still Fax at ANTS Theatre Online
    ★★★★★
    Theatre
  • We Ask These Questions of Everybody: An interview with Amble Skuse and Toria Banks
    Theatre
  • Hello Cosmos – Dream Harder
    ★★★★★
    Album review
  • We Still Fax at ANTS Theatre Online
    ★★★★★
    Theatre
  • WandaVision: Marvel’s charming sitcom proves an astounding success
    ★★★★★
    Cinema
  • The Queen’s Gambit: A chess story that’s not about the moves but the motives
    ★★★★★
    Cinema
  • Undercover at Morpheus Show Online
    ★★★★★
    Theatre
  • Ten short literary collections to get you back into reading
    Literature
The Upcoming
Pages
  • Contact us
  • Join mailing list
  • Join us
  • Our London food map
  • Our writers
  • Support us
  • What, when, why

Copyright © 2011-2020 FL Media

A Midsummer Night’s Dream at the Bridge Theatre | Theatre review
Kahani in Chelsea: Unique Indian dishes that tell their own story | Restaurant review