Sweat Summary

The play sweat by Lynn Nott age takes place in the first decade of the 2000s. During the duration of the play we follow characters through a period of time where the factory they work at starts downsizing and then the union strikes. In response to this the workers are locked out and eventually their jobs get sourced out to Mexico. This all takes place in the small town of Reading, Pennsylvania and more specifically in a bar in this town for the majority of the play. The play speaks to the fragile human condition and many other topics, however, I will be focusing on what Nott age is saying about addiction in the play. There are three characters that I will mainly be focusing on to analyze this. Brucie, an African American male in his forties,

My jaws tired of the damn chatter I just wanna get drunk, smoke a blunt, and chill for a little while… (after Jason and Stan chime in) Not me, id probably just ride out unemployment, maybe pick up some heavy lifting, day stuff, then start college next September. The unions offering some financial aid” here we are able to see Chris’s entire attitude has changed and while he is still able to hold to his goal of school, he is nowhere near as enthusiastic or driven to accomplish it. The toxic effect that Brucie left on Chris and Cynthia clearly hanged their attitudes and outlooks for the future. While the two seem like they were both still almost the same it is very clear that Nott age is attempting to show the immense effect that Brucies addiction and toxic lifestyle had on two of his close companions. They eventually got so tired and fed up with having to deal with Brucie that they started being short with others, which then brought them to be lazier and eventually they had transformed to a complete 180 from where they had started in the earlier years of the play. Nottages play sweat showed the love a compassion shared by the three characters slowly slip and fall through the cracks as Brucie eventually manipulated and lied his way through life in a last ditch attempt to make everything work out in his favor. This goes to further prove Nottage's point about addiction not being a disease that only effects ne person but it effects the people who are closest or care most about the person