Lynn Nottage's Pulitzer Prize-winning 2015 play, first seen in the UK at the Donmar Warehouse in 2018, was written just before Trump announced he would be running for President, but is set during the election years of 2000, when Bush Junior narrowly beat Gore (remember the 'hanging chad' controversy?), and 2008, when Obama returned the Democrats to the White House. It is a timely revival in a year which will see another bitter presidential battle in the US, not to mention elections in the UK (probably) and many other countries.
But this isn't a political play that deals with people in power. Just like an Arthur Miller play, it unpicks the effects of the decisions of the powerful on those at the bottom of the heap, as this simmering industrial town builds into a powder-keg.
The play is largely set in 2000, but it is framed by scenes in 2008, beginning with twitchy Jason (Lewis Gribben), hiding in his hoody with an Aryan Brotherhood tattoo on his face, being interviewed by his parole officer (Aaron Cobham), and later Chris (Abdul Sessay), who seems a lot more together, doing the same. It's clear that Jason and Chris have a history together, but it takes the rest of the 2¾ hours to find out exactly how they ended up here.
Flash back to a bar in industrial town Reading, Pennsylvania run by Stan (Jonathan Kerrigan), who used to work at the plant where most of the town works until invalided out following an accident. Three friends are out celebrating: Jessie (Kate Kennedy), who is already unconscious in a corner, Cynthia, who announces she has kicked her husband Bruce (Chris Jack) out after he sold half their Christmas presents for drugs, and Tracey.
Cynthia also announces that she is going to apply for the job of Warehouse Supervisor, even though they've never promoted anyone "off the floor" to management before. Stan says that although he hated the old owner, at least he walked the floor and knew his employees and machinery, unlike these young managers with their MBAs. Tracey decides that if Cynthia is going to apply, she will too. But when Cynthia gets the job, cracks start to appear in their friendship.
It turns out that Jason is Tracey's son, whose biggest ambition is to open a Dunkin' Donuts, and Chris is Cynthia and Brucie's son, who has plans to go to college and train to be a teacher, even though he would earn a lot more working at the factory—this is a union closed shop, where new employees are approved by the union reps, so effectively jobs go to friends and family, and outsiders—such as Stan's Colombian busboy, Oscar (Marcello Cruz)—are excluded.
But then, over a weekend, the management ships a load of the machinery to Mexico, where labour is cheaper and unions less troublesome, and the staff are told they will have to take a huge pay cut to keep their jobs. Tracey becomes increasingly bitter towards Cynthia, despite the latter's insistence that she is the only one fighting their corner and that if she walks out in support they will have no one on their side.
But this goes beyond the breakup of a friendship. In a desperate situation, the victims turn not to the invisible bosses but to those amongst them who have taken what they have convinced themselves they deserve more. Tracey put it about that Cynthia only got the job because she is black, and then encourages vengeance on Oscar, who finally has an opportunity to work at the plant, as a 'scab'. This is what the populist politicians and right wing press are very good at exploiting: getting people who actually have a lot in common to blame one another rather than those who are actually responsible for their situation—and who no doubt enriched themselves even more in the process.
Jade Lewis's production takes place on a very basic framed set designed by Good Teeth that looks like an irregular boxing ring rather than the elaborate bar that the Donmar used, but it works to focus attention on the performances. Elena Peña's sound design layers lines from news reports and presidential speeches between scenes, although I couldn't make out a lot of what was being said.
This is a strong and timely production of a play that looks intelligently at how traditional Democrat voters may turn to someone like Trump without ever looking down on its subjects and making both sides human and sympathetic, and of course it has very strong parallels here in the UK.