Making us visible in SWEAT

A New Yorker said that Lynn Nottage has “built a career on making invisible people visible.” I have not read other works of Lynn Nottage, but this statement is true for her play SWEAT, published in 2017. Her play has given a way for factory line workers, who are considered invisible people in the play, to become visible in the eyes of the world.

SWEAT is a complex play that reveals many circumstances about the life of factory line workers. It presents what factory line workers, who are generally overseen by the world, usually go through and describes their challenges to bring them in front of the world. The challenges of the factory line workers, including job insecurity and alcohol addiction, are put and emphasized in a form of a play to make these invisible people visible in the eyes of the world.

The emphasis on job insecurity is placed throughout the novel, but it is highlighted specifically in Act 2 Scene 2 when Cynthia says, “They [refers to the manufacturing plant] can move the whole factory to Mexico tomorrow morning, and a woman like you will stand for sixteen hours and be happy making a fraction of what they’re paying you.” This quote is a very strong one that emphasizes job insecurity. As Cynthia mentions, the quote that “whole factory to Mexico tomorrow” reveals that the factory line workers can lose their jobs at any time. The original quote also reveals that many manufacturers do not care about their workers and just about their profits, so they would not hesitate at firing their workers. This  highlights the high job insecurity of factory line workers. The situation of these workers [the invisible people] which would not have been seen by the normal public is brought into attention by the medium of the play. By emphasizing the job insecurity and using careful chosen dialogue, Nottage makes these people visible.

Another challenge of the factory line workers that Nottage brings into public attention through her play is alcohol addiction. It is highlighted in numerous places throughout the play. In Act 1 Scene 1, alcohol addiction is specifically highlighted through the character of Jessie. As the scene begins, author describes that Jessie has passed out due to drinking too much. This description shows Jessie’s alcohol addiction to a certain extent, but it is further confirmed when Jessie wakes up and says to Stan to “get me [Jessie] another gimlet.” This clearly indicates her drug addiction because even after drinking too much and passing out, she wants to drink more. And this addiction is not specific to her; Nottage highlights this as a lifestyle of most factory line workers by showing Jessie as a factory line worker herself.

Well, it could be argued that showing only Jessie as alcohol addict does not make a generalization about most factory line workers, but this possibility is denied by Nottage when she makes other characters of her play alcohol addict too. This is especially highlighted in Brucie who is described to be more addicted to alcohol than anyone else. He was also a factory line worker in the past and his addiction is described in Act 1 Scene 4. When Brucie comes to Cynthia and tries to talk to her, she ignores him. Brucie and Cynthia were arguing for a long time as Cynthia does not want to talk to Brucie, but Brucie still tries. Finally, when they began talking and Brucie tells Cynthia that he is “in a program,” she replies “is having a drink part of that program?” Cynthia’s response, when heard first, looks simple, but when examined closely, Nottage uses Cynthia’s response to reveal Brucie’s alcohol addiction. Cynthia’s response is much more than a taunt to Brucie. Because she implies that whatever program Brucie will go into will have drinking, she informs the audience that Brucie drinks a lot. His alcohol addiction is reveled through Cynthia’s response, and Nottage uses Brucie to generalize alcohol addiction about factory line workers by showing him as a worker like Jessie too. Nottage uses the emphasis on addiction in the play to bring public attention to factory line workers.

SWEAT puts and highlights the specific challenges faced by the factory line workers in a form of play to make the workers visible in eyes of the world.. This enabling of visuality is very important because it can help in making people take steps to improve the factory workers’ conditions. The play can also help raise these issues is the eyes of government which can take steps, including setting job security requirements and executing alcohol restrictions more strongly, to help factory line workers.

Job security and alcohol addiction are just few challenges that Nottage describes about factory line workers, but there are many more. Let me know in the comments what other challenges Nottage describes in her play SWEAT.

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