✕ ✕
Turning tips into memories
Login
Signup

You have reached the limit of free articles.


To enjoy unlimited access to Culture Whisper sign up for FREE.
Find out more about Culture Whisper


Sign up by Email or Facebook.

Please fix the following input errors:

  • dummy

Each week, we sent newsletters and communication featuring articles, our latest tickets invitations, and exclusive offers.

Occasional information about discounts, special offers and promotions.


OR
LOG IN

OR
  • LOG IN WITH FACEBOOK

Thanks for signing up to Culture Whisper.
Please check your inbox for a confirmation email and click the link to verify your account.



EXPLORE CULTURE WHISPER
✕ ✕
Turning tips into memories
Login
Signup

Please fix the following input errors:

  • dummy
Forgot your username or password?
Don't have an account? Sign Up

OR
  • LOG IN WITH FACEBOOK

If you click «Log in with Facebook» and are not a Culture Whisper user, you agree to our Terms & Conditions and to our Privacy Policy, which includes our Cookie Use

Turning tips into memories

Get started Login
  • Home
  • Going Out
    • Things to do
    • Food & Drink
    • Theatre
    • Visual Arts
    • Cinema
    • Kids
    • Festival
    • Gigs
    • Dance
    • Classical Music
    • Opera
    • Immersive
    • Talks
  • Staying In
    • TV
    • Books
    • Cook
    • Podcast
    • Design
    • Netflix
  • Life & Style
    • Beauty
    • Fashion
    • Gifting
    • Wellbeing
    • Lifestyle
    • Shopping
    • Jewellery
  • Explore
  • Kids
  • Benefits
  • Membership
  • Get Started
  • Membership
  • Benefits
Get the Best of London Life, Culture and Style
By entering my email I agree to the CultureWhisper Privacy Policy (we won`t share data & you can unsubscribe anytime).
Theatre

West End transfer: Sweat, Gielgud Theatre

07 Jun 19 – 20 Jul 19, 7:30 PM – 9:00 PM

A Pulitzer-winning study of American racial divides, poverty and industrial malaise transfers to West End after impressing at Donmar Warehouse

By CW Contributor on 8/2/2019

5 CW readers are interested
Martha Plimpton and Stuart McQuarrie. Photo: Johan Persson
Martha Plimpton and Stuart McQuarrie. Photo: Johan Persson
West End transfer: Sweat, Gielgud Theatre West End transfer: Sweat, Gielgud Theatre Lucy Brooks
After a sellout, four-star run at the Donmar Warehouse, Sweat transfers to the West End's Gielgud Theatre for a limited run from 7 June to 20 July. Martha Plimpton will reprise her role as Tracey.


Click here to book tickets for the transfer.


Sweat, Donmar Warehouse review ★★★★★


Set in Reading, Pensylvannia, and grounded in over two years of local interviews, Lynn Nottage’s Pulitzer Prize-winning play Sweat (2015) masterfully tells a tragic story of de-industrialization. Churning up issues of race and class, and powerfully examining how they interact, Sweat is a formidably drawn and often painful portrait of working class America. Lynette Linton, who was recently appointed the Bush’s new Artistic Director, directs this UK premiere with a thoughtful and human touch, making for a moving, lucid, and poignant drama.


Moving between 2000 and 2008, Sweat recounts the after-effects of a tight-knit group of steel workers being locked out from one of the town’s long-established factories. As Cynthia (Clare Perkins) is promoted off the floor to management, tensions arise between her and lifelong friends and co-workers Jessie (Leanne Best) and Tracey (Martha Plimpton), only to be exacerbated by rumours of job loss and strike action. Astutely set in the local bar, social dynamics within the community are unearthed and divisions are drawn along class and racial lines.


With the steel factory looming in the background, designer Frankie Bradshaw creates a highly detailed, if not a bit too polished, bar that clatters with realism. Linton paces the play beautifully, allowing for moments of joy and laughter to cement the bonds between residents whose histories are bound up together. But she also points to the hypocrisy and complexity of the characters: white bartender Stan (Stuart McQuarrie) laments the lack of recognition factory workers receive as his Colombian-American barback Oscar (Sebastian Viveros) works tirelessly without acknowledgement.


Viveros’s Oscar is calm and pragmatic, even when facing hateful racism from Plimpton’s Tracey, whose ferocious temper, quick wit, and surprising tenderness are perfectly portrayed. Perkins as Cynthia is gutsy, ambitious and measured. The fight between the two trickles down into the next generation, and their sons Chris and Jason, both excellently acted by Osy Ikhile and Patrick Gibson, find themselves in the centre of the tragedy.


Nottage skillfully shows that the loss of hope that weighs down this town, and the rest of America, falls on the shoulders of the next generation. The television in the bar shows scenes of the 2000 election as well as George W. Bush’s 2008 speech about the economic crisis. But in Reading, Pennsylvania, at the very end of the rust belt, it’s hard to see how politicians reflect the community. Perhaps what’s most unsettling is the uncanny way Nottage’s Sweat forecasts the growing disaffection and despair of working class communities, and what that means for the state of the nation.

by Brendan Macdonald

What West End transfer: Sweat, Gielgud Theatre
Where Gielgud Theatre, 35 Shaftesbury Avenue, London, W1D 6AR | MAP
Nearest tube Covent Garden (underground)
When 07 Jun 19 – 20 Jul 19, 7:30 PM – 9:00 PM
Price £20+
Website Click here for more information and tickets



Up to £80
Martha Plimpton and Stuart McQuarrie. Photo: Johan Persson
Booking closed
07 Jun 19 - 20 Jul 19

Sweat

See all tickets

Most popular

10 things to do this weekend
Things to do in London this weekend: 15 - 17 January
Ellie Bamber and Billy Howle in The Serpent, BBC One (Photo: BBC)
The Serpent, BBC One review
UK Disneyland? Paramount Theme Park, Kent. Photo: Paramount
Everything you need to know about UK Disneyland, Kent's London Resort

Editor's Picks

10 things to do this weekend
Things to do in London this weekend: 15 - 17 January
London Theatre Guide: best plays on now in London, 2019 (Photograph: Peter Lewicki)
London Theatre Guide: best plays on now in London, 2020
Sign up to CW’s newsletter
By entering my email I agree to the CultureWhisper Privacy Policy (we won`t share data & you can unsubscribe anytime).

We recommend nearby

  • Heritage restaurant
    Read more...
    Map
  • The Palomar

    In the heart of bustling theatreland, we recommend visiting Palomar for a true taste of Jerusalem. The London branch of a popular Jerusalem chain, diners eat on a bar adjacent to the chef’s, in an authentic atmosphere filled with energy and jollity.

    Book Map
  • Engawa

    If you’ve ever wanted to try the world’s best beef, then Japanese restaurant Engawa is the place for you. As well as serving Japanese classics like soup and sashimi, Engawa specialises in Kobe beef, the extraordinarily tender cut of meat produced in Western Japan. A night out at Engawa is bound to be a special one. Enter the spectacular dining area and sit yourself on a stool by the countertop to watch your food being created by a team of talented chefs.

    Read more...

    Culture Whisper is your ultimate guide to the newest, most exciting cafés, bars and restaurants in London and we are sure you will love Engawa!

    Book Map
5

Donmar Warehouse

You might like

  • Dolly Party musical - London's Savoy Theatre

    Dolly Parton's 9 to 5 The Musical, Savoy Theatre London

  • Mamma Mia! The Party immersive experience, London

    Mamma Mia! The Party immersive experience, London

  • Debut at the National Theatre: Cate Blanchett stars in When We Have Sufficiently Tortured Each Other

    When We Have Sufficiently Tortured Each Other, National Theatre review ★★★★★



  • The Culture Whisper team
  • What is Culture Whisper membership
  • Corporate membership
  • Give a gift membership
  • Retrieve a gift membership
  • Contact us
  • Press
  • FAQ
  • Privacy
  • Terms and conditions
  • Cookies
  • Discover
  • Venues
  • Restaurants
  • Stations
  • Boroughs
Sign up to CW’s newsletter
By entering my email I agree to the CultureWhisper Privacy Policy (we won`t share data & you can unsubscribe anytime).
×