Oh, no cannonballs did fly, no rifles cut us down
No bombs fell from the sky, no blood soaked the ground
No powder flash blinded the eye, no deathly thunder sound
But just as sure as the hand of God, they brought death to my hometown
They brought death to my hometown…
Bruce Springsteen, Death to My Hometown
There is a telling meme that has floated around social media for a number of years now. Three figures are sitting around a table. One, who looks suspiciously like Rupert Murdoch, has an entire plate full of cookies. Sitting across from each other, a white man in a hardhat with a single cookie in front of him stares across the table at a BIPOC man with nothing in front of him. The Murdoch figure is leaning over to the white man and saying, “Careful mate…that foreigner wants your cookie.”
I’ve thought about that meme a lot while directing Lynn Nottage’s unbelievably accurate portrait of a community falling apart. Like all great art, Sweat manages to deftly combine the personal with the political and is able to put human faces on issues it may be more comfortable for us to avoid. Since the myth of trickle down economics was foisted upon this country over 40 years ago, the middle and working class have been under constant assault from an array of economic and political forces whose only real agenda is to accumulate more wealth than they can possibly ever spend in several lifetimes.
Change is happening at a bewildering pace. Industries are shuttering and moving away, unions have been decimated, and once proud towns are becoming like a ghost town. As a species, we have an amazing capacity to disregard that which does not affect us personally. With Tracy, Cynthia, Jessie, Brucie, Stan, Chris, Jason and Oscar, Lynn Nottage puts human faces on huge issues without providing us the cold comfort of solutions. It is the role of great theatre to ask questions, not to provide the answers.
So, I implore you: Hear these characters, see these characters. You may not realize it but their story could very easily one day be your story…
Peace and Love
Rick St. Peter, Director
03/19/2022
