Sweat at Everyman Theatre

Having grown up side-by-side in small-town working-class America, best friends Tracey and Cynthia went from fun-loving schoolchildren to saloon-loving adults who work together on a steel manufacturing line. In a tight-knit community like this one, however, it takes but one fracture in its core for the breaking point of friendship to be seismically tested. Inspired by field research and first-person testimonials collected in Reading, PA, Lynn Nottage's unflinching, intensely researched, and Pulitzer-winning slice-of-life drama, Sweat, captures the pressure cooker of NAFTA-inflicted trying times-where a lethal combination of layoffs, lockouts, and picket lines sends the Rust Belt way of life into crisis.