Lynn Nottage's Pulitzer Prize- Winning SWEAT Opens At The Gamm 

The Sandra Feinstein-Gamm Theatre presents Lynn Nottage's Sweat - one of the most heralded plays of recent years. Winner of the Pulitzer Prize for drama, this contemporary masterwork speaks to the plight of the American worker and the fragile bonds that hold our communities together. Sometimes shocking and often surprisingly funny, Sweat captures the roots of economic insecurity with power and grace.

With a cast of newcomers and Gamm favorites, Rachel Walshe, the theater's associate artistic director, helms the story of working-class friends brought to a tragic breaking point by the decline of manufacturing jobs and the pressures of family. A collision of race, class, and friendship among steel mill workers, Sweat speaks to this moment in American history, Walshe noted.

"There are many fault lines in the landscape of American politics. The collapse of the steel industry and the financial ruin it brought to laboring families across this nation is one that Sweat animates with fearlessness and compassion. I am so excited to bring this play to Rhode Island audiences who I hope see their own humanity, struggles, joys and fights reflected in the lives of the powerful characters in Nottage's masterpiece," Walshe said.

Sweat runs from Nov. 3-27 at The Gamm Theatre, 1245 Jefferson Blvd., Warwick, R.I. Tickets are $55-$65; preview performances (Nov. 3-6) are $38. Information about Friday night pay-what-you-can rush tickets, as well as discounts for seniors, students, groups and more at gammtheatre.org/discounts. Tickets at 401-723-4266 or gammtheatre.org/sweat. Health and safety protocols at gammtheatre.org.

Life is hard but reassuringly predictable for a tight-knit group of friends in blue-collar Reading, Pa. On the factory floor and in the local bar, bonds are forged, drinks are downed, and gossip flows. But when layoffs and picket lines chip away at their trust, friends find themselves pitted against each other in a primal fight for survival. From its slow-burn opening to its electrifying end, Nottage's Pulitzer Prize-winning play confronts race, deindustrialization, and the ever-shrinking middle class with humor and heart.

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