Toronto Review: "Sweat" at the Berkeley Street Theatre
David Rabjohn, Associate Toronto Critic
Lynn Nottage’s Pulitzer-prize winning exposition of the human toll of economic turbulence storms the stage with unparalleled fury at Berkeley Street Theatre in Toronto. Noted American activist and respected playwright, Ms. Nottage packages months of research and interviews into this undiluted story of rage against the ravages of the phenomena known as rust-belt America. Director David Storch guides a brilliant cast of nine through mine fields that will explode. Two outstanding opening performances ensure from the beginning that this audience will not be comfortable as emotional extremes are achingly exposed.
A recently released convict, Jason, is played with searing intensity by Timothy Dowler-Coltman. Charles Manson-like facial tattoos stun us immediately. A pursing wet mouth and bulging eyes preface an angry tirade against the world while arms and legs are barely controlled. Subtlety does not pervade this play. A second opening performance comes from Allegra Fulton as a full throttle drunk. Acting workshops might suggest that a well performed drunk is someone who works very hard at pretending not to be drunk. Not so with Ms. Fulton’s powerful performance. Barely conscious and dishevelled, Jessie stumbles and barks, exposing pathetic disdain for civilized behaviour. The audience makes an effort at laughter that is quickly tempered by the screeching pathos. Extremes pervade: extreme anger, extreme cruelty, extreme poverty, extreme greed.
Ms. Nottage brilliantly focuses the play in a hard-scrabble bar that is surrounded by the personified sense of the hard-scrabble factory. Whining machinery is heard, but not seen – painted out windows and discarded skids close in on the bar and the lives of the patrons. Much like a circus ringleader, bar manager Stan (Ron Lea) announces and/or referees the various characters and ensuing angst. Three long-time friends and veterans of the factory floor are played by Kelli Fox(Tracey) Ordena Stephens-Thompson(Cynthia) and the aforementioned Ms. Fulton (Jessie). They share, along with generations before and upcoming, the anger, despair and hatred initiated by rumours of corporate shrinkage and greed. It is this context that produces generational breakdown, the tearing of relationships, the encroachment of racism, misogyny, and violence along with the prospects of cyclical poverty. Again, it is this compelling cast whose unrelenting energy exposes these dark and complex themes.
A remarkable performance by Peter N. Bailey demonstrates the depredations of a broken family. Heartbreaking interactions with his son Chris (Christopher Allen) mine the horrors of wasted ambition. Kelli Fox also provides a searing performance as the mother of the frenetic son, Jason, turned maniacal skin head. Again, the extremity of loathing one’s own son is blinding. More understated performances from Maurice Dean Wint (parole officer) and Jhonattan Ardila (bus boy turned bar manager) offer some hope and stability but it inevitably is drowned out by the caustic emptiness of this American Dream.
The structure of time moving forward and backward was well-suited to this story of the relentless cycle of fear and hatred. Credit must be given to dressers backstage who had to reinvent especially the character of Jason – hair and tattoos had to come and go in seeming moments. Credit also to fight director Casey Hudecki who choreographed a climactic scene of overwhelming violence. Unfortunately, a bouncy baseball bat was a prop that needs some re-thinking.
Reminiscent of ‘The Iceman Cometh’, Lynn Nottage’s bar teems with the lot of human frailty. This cast’s strength is in stomping on the accelerator and not letting go, reminding us of Stan’s unfettered philosophy – “shit follows you everywhere.” Devastatingly sad, of course, but a stark and necessary message of social awareness.
Sweat by Lynn Nottage – produced by Canadian Stage and Studio 180 Theatre
Cast featuring: Christopher Allen, Jhonattan Ardila, Timothy Dowler-Coltman, Kelli Fox, Allegra Fulton, Ron Lea, Ordena Stephens-Thompson, Maurice Dean Witt, Peter N. Bailey
Creative Team: David Storch, Director; Set Design,Ken Mackenzie; Costume Design, Anna Treusch; Lighting Design, Kimberly Purtell; Fight Director, Casey Hudecki
Runs at: Canadian Stage Berkeley Street Theatre – Toronto, Ontario. January 14 to February 2, 2020.
Tickets found at: canadianstage.com
Photo: (L-R): Ordena Stephens-Thompson, Ron Lea and Kelli Fox. Credit: John Lauener