Sweat at Costa Mesa Playhouse

Winner of the 2017 Pulitzer Prize for Drama, Lynn Nottage's Sweat is an incisive portrayal of the economic struggles and social tensions in small-town America. Filled with warm humor and tremendous heart, the action unfolds in a local bar in working-class Pennsylvania, where a group of factory workers have spent their lives sharing drinks, secrets, and laughs. But when layoffs and picket lines begin to erode their trust, these tight-knit friends suddenly find themselves pitted against one another.

A powerful and timely work, Sweat captures the heart-wrenching challenges faced by the working class to stay afloat – and the disillusionment that emerges when the blindspots of race, class, and identity come into focus. Nottage's raw and authentic portrayal of the working class was inspired by interviews with residents of Reading, Pennsylvania – a once-flourishing rust belt town, which at the time, was among America's most impoverished cities.

Sweat premiered at the Oregon Shakespeare Festival in 2015 and made its Broadway debut in 2017.