Barbara Ehrenreich, an author with a Ph.D. in biology, wrote a
book about the futility of the lives of minimum wage workers.
Barbara Ehrenreich, an author with a Ph.D. in biology, wrote a book about the futility of the lives of minimum wage workers. She went to three American cities, took undercover jobs working as a low wage worker and wrote a gut-wrenching real life story that shouldn’t surprise us. Joan Holdens’ remarkable adaptation of the book is startling and disturbing.
A superb six member cast, led by Sharon Lockwood as Barbara, brings the frustrations, anxieties and stress that people in these positions go through. The ensemble bring around thirty five characters to life with depth that is brilliant and believable.
Barbara Lockwood’s performance is grimly riveting, with bittersweetness and honesty. The supporting cast give flawless performances of hotel maids, a short order chef, a non-English speaking bus boy, over-worked waitresses, inept and officious managers, clerks, house cleaners, nursing home attendants, patients and a slew of other characters that make up the underside of this underpaid and mistreated working force we seem to deny exist.
Dan Chumley directs with a less than a detailed hand but we get the picture and the players make the message very clear. You can barely make it with one job that pays minimum wage and if your are lucky enough to hold two jobs maybe, just maybe you can afford a movie ticket if you have the energy to get yourself to a theater.
We can intellectualize the situation from now to eternity but the solution to the problem evades us in this production. When one-fourth of the American work force works for $7- to $8 an hour, and rent and food are what they are, their plight seems hopeless.
For an evening of fine theater that will be eye-opening for some and comes across not as depressing as it really is, this is for you. As usual Theater Works delivers a solid production that’s worth the trip.
Produced by TheatreWorks and Brava Theater Center
Camille Bounds is the theatre, arts and special events editor for Sunrise Publications.
