Plays for Labor Day. In praise of theater about unions, workers and workplaces.
September 3, 2018 Leave a comment
It was while attending the current revival of Lillian Hellman’s 1936 play “Days to Come,” which is set during a strike at a brush factory in Ohio, that I suddenly wondered: Where are the American plays about unions, or workers, or even just workplaces?
It seems an apt question for Labor Day, which, contrary to what may be public perception, was not created to promote barbecues. Congress passed a law making Labor Day a legal holiday in 1884 to celebrate the labor union movement, a holiday first proposed by a labor union official
To The Bone,2014: Liza Fernandez, Annie Henk and Lisa Ramirez working in the poultry plant
Waiting for Lefty, 1937
When Mañana Comes, 2014. Jose Joaquin Perez, Jason Bowen, Brian Quijada and Reza Salazar as busboys in “My Manana Comes”
The worker, bloodied, toting a gun, in “Days to Come”
A Taste of Honey, 1961 Broadway, with Angela Lansbury and Joan Plowright.
Assistance, 2012
Sweat on Broadway: Alison Wright, Will Pullen, Michelle Wilson
Gloria, 2015
Jason Dirden and Nikiya Mathis in Skeleton Crew
Advertisements
