Sweat

Scene 2 takes place in a local Reading bar, a flashback to the year 2000. In the bar, three factory coworkers from Olstead’s mill—Tracey, Cynthia, and Jessie—spend a friendly evening together celebrating Tracey’s birthday. Throughout the scene, Jessie is visibly drunk, and on the verge of passing out. Stan—the bartender—flirts with Tracey, vaguely alluding to a one-night stand they shared several years ago. It is clear that Stan wants to renew this connection, but Tracey does not reciprocate his desires. Meanwhile, Oscar—a young Colombian American man—cleans tables in the background, unacknowledged by the bar’s patrons.

Cynthia reveals details of her troubled relationship with Brucie, her estranged husband. After a period of separation, Cynthia allowed Brucie back into her home. Brucie betrayed her trust, however, by stealing and pawning many of her belongings. As the play later reveals, Brucie is in a state of emotional and financial desperation as the result of an ongoing strike (and a union that can no longer sustain him). Cynthia also notes that Brucie was high, suggesting that he has struggled with substance abuse to cope with the stress of the strike.

The trio also discusses a former worker—Freddy Brunner—who burned down his own house. Freddy had lost his job, and he was in debt. They interpret this house fire as a terrifying act of desperation.

Cynthia brings up a job opening in Olstead’s management. There is a rumor going around the factory that management plans to promote a worker off the floor. Cynthia tells her friends that she plans to apply for the position, and feels she deserves this promotion after working in the factory for over 20 years. Jessie and Stan are enthusiastic about the idea of someone from the floor—who understands the labor that goes into making Olstead’s products—working at a higher level. Tracey, however, has mixed feelings about the idea of Cynthia rising in rank. Cynthia encourages Tracey to apply along with her in solidarity. Tracey reluctantly agrees to do so.

As they toast to the possibility of this promotion, Jessie vomits and falls over drunk in the background. Cynthia darkly muses that Jessie is going to drag her and Tracey down with her. 

The scene opens on Jason in the bar, showing Stan a picture of a motorcycle he wants to buy. Chris joins him, and muses that so much of their money goes toward the pursuit of shiny new material goods and temporary pleasures. Thus, they are never able to save enough to relax, or to pursue a better future.

Chris and Jason discuss their future plans. Jason shares his half-baked plan to open a Dunkin Donuts, and Chris urges his friend to aspire to imagine better opportunities beyond Reading. Chris shares that he has been accepted to college, and that he aspires to become a teacher. Jason warns that teachers don’t make a great deal of money, claiming that Chris will come back and beg for his factory job. It is clear, however, that Jason is really afraid of losing his friend, and of losing their base of connection.

At the bar, Brucie confides his frustrations with Stan. Workers have been locked out of his factory for 93 weeks, and Brucie is struggling to regain his sense of purpose. Brucie expresses deep frustration over the fact that his generation has had to endure hardships far beyond his parents’. Brucie understands that his son’s generation must endure an even more exploitative work environment. Stan commiserates, saying that his workplace injury—getting his leg caught in a machine—ended up being “the best thing that ever happened to [him]” (36) because it forced him to find an identity outside of his workplace. Stan darkly muses that people in management knew the machine was problematic and unsafe, but they were willing to sacrifice their workers’ well-being simply to save money.

Cynthia, Tracey, and Jessie enter the bar. Cynthia tries to avoid him, but Brucie insists on talking to her. He tells her he’s joined a twelve-step program to get sober, but Cynthia is skeptical about his intentions. Cynthia reveals that Chris got into college, and asks Brucie not to deter him. She suggests that Chris feels torn between loyalty to his father’s legacy and the desire for a better future.

Brucie tries to kiss Cynthia, but Tracey steps in and fiercely protects her friend. She tells Brucie to “Get clean or get lost” (44).

Scene 5 takes place outside of the bar. Cynthia has just received the promotion at Olstead’s, and she is celebrating inside. Tracey sits outside, smoking, feeling sad and conflicted. She knows that this promotion will bring a change in their friendship and in her workplace, though she isn’t yet sure precisely what this change will look like. She suspects that Cynthia received the promotion because she is Black. Though Tracey does not consciously voice these thoughts, the play suggests that management might be using Cynthia as a future scapegoat (for decisions that will lead to tension and retaliation from the workers).

Oscar approaches Tracey with a Spanish-language job posting for Olstead’s. The flier advertises a much lower wage than Tracey makes, and it does not mention union requirements or benefits. Though Tracey does not appear to consciously understand what this flier might mean for the factory’s development, she seems distressed by it. She tells Oscar about her family’s long history with Olstead’s and the city of Reading, expressing nostalgia for the days when people—such as her German craftsman grandfather—were revered for working with their hands.

Jessie celebrates her birthday at the bar with Tracey and Cynthia. She waxes nostalgically about an affair she had many years ago with a man who wanted to travel the world with her. She wonders what she might have seen—and who she might have become—if she’d left Reading.

Cynthia details some of the strange mental adjustment that has been involved in her management-level promotion. She explains that on her first day in the new position, she automatically went onto the factory floor as usual and began working before she remembered her promotion. Cynthia remarks on the strange removal between management and workers on the floor, musing that she now works with people who have been there for decades, but were previously unbeknownst to her.

Tracey clearly feels betrayed by Cynthia, and confronts her about rumors that management intends to lay off several floor workers. When Cynthia attempts to diffuse Tracey’s suspicions, Tracey produces the flier Oscar showed her and asks Oscar to read it out loud.

Chris sees his father, Brucie, outside the bar on the 4th of July, as he and Jason are on their way to the plant. Financially desperate, Brucie asks his son for money. Chris gives him 10 dollars and tells him it’s all he has to spare.

When Brucie inquires about Jason and Chris’s rush, they explain that Olstead’s has moved several of their machines out of the factory over the holiday weekend. Brucie gravely returns the 10 dollars, remarking that Chris will need it more than he does. Brucie explains that this was precisely how his own strike at the mill began. The union started off “thinking big,” but after two years of struggle, they have had no success. Brucie urges him to accept any compromises offered, ominously warning that once the factory brings in temp workers, they’ll be “out” (63) for good.