Playwright Clifford Odets set Waiting for Lefty in 1935, but this one-act classic play about unions has echoes of life in America today. Unions' battle against big business was illustrated when the United Auto Workers went on strike in 2023—nine decades later. Gwydion Theatre Company's production of Waiting for Lefty has the look and feel of Depression-era America. This show is done as vignettes directed by Gwydion's artistic director Grayson Kennedy with tense energy that had me on the edge of my seat
In 1930s America, Marxist ideology and Communism were making some headway into the American consciousness. Economic parity for the workers was seen as a Communist plot by the industry barons who needed a underclass to maintain their status and wealth. Even the title insinuates left-leaning collective thinking. Waiting for Lefty opens with a contentious meeting of New York cab drivers deciding if they should go on strike. At the podium is union secretary Harry Fatt (Rick Yaconis) telling the members that it is not the right time to go on strike. When he tells the men that he knows they want to go home and enjoy a hot supper, he gets heckled.
Odets' dialogue is a rich mix of working-class idioms and what some might call "real talk." The women characters are more than set-dressing and demure women. The harrowing reality of starvation and eviction is spoken by Edna (Maddie Hillock) when Joe (Andrew Shipman) brings home a few coins after a long day driving. Hillock is captivating as she speaks of the children having rickets and not knowing they missed a meal because she put them to bed early. Their furniture has been repossessed, the children are pale instead of rosy-cheeked, and the rent is due.
Sam Bessler's lighting design is stark and accentuates the dire economy, hitting home for the working class. The set design by director Kennedy is equally stark with folding chairs and a raised dais with the American flag nailed to the wall. The costumes are era-appropriate for the most part. This was a time when people dressed to get on the bus. Some of the men wore suits and women always wore dresses. Costume designer Ellie Thompson uses a muted palette that fits the Depression-era mood. There are no flamboyant colors or flourishes. Everything is simple and bare bones, which enhances the feeling of desperation.
Some of America's problems have always been around. The vignette on healthcare is devastating because the American public is still held hostage by access to medical care. Dr. Benjamin (Holden Ochsenhirt) and Dr. Barnes ((Ian Rigged) lose a charity patient because a senator's son is a doctor and wants to do the operation. Dr. Barnes has to tell Dr. Benjamin that he is being laid off because the charity ward is being closed. Hospitals as businesses are still the norm today. The dialogue was updated in this vignette when Dr. Barnes says that he wants to go to Canada where they have socialized medicine. In the original play, the destination is Russia, and that came back to haunt Odets when the House Un-American Activities Committee (HUAC) brought him and director Elia Kazan to testify and rat out their fellow artists.
Some other updates seem to be under the banner of political correctness. A research assistant named Miller (a fantastic Jake Griffith) and the head of the lab Fayette (Yaconis) are discussing a promotion and raise for Miller to work with a chemist working on poison gas in anticipation of WWII. Fayette offers MIller a cigar, which he declines, and then a glass of liquor, which he also declines. Fayette says that "Poles and Blacks work better drunk." In the original play, the derogatory epithets for Polish and Black are used. The N-word is used several times in the original. Also, the character of Sid (Bobby Dixon) does a fine job of being a suitor to Florrie (Ellory Jezuit), but the dreadlocks should have been kept under Sid's hat. This is not about colorblind casting; the dreadlocks were out of keeping with the rest of the period costumes and hair styles.
The performances are good with the fervor and outbursts of violence that took place in unions not so long ago. Kennedy does a great job choreographing the movement and actions. Waiting for Lefty is written as a collective work where most of the characters are on the same socioeconomic level and all willing to take a chance with their lives to make a way out of poverty and the underclass. It is a short 45 minutes but it is packed with meaning that resonates especially today when more people are agitating for unions and a living wage. Waiting for Lefty is an American classic that I recommend you make a part of your Chicago Theater Week adventures.
Waiting for Lefty runs February 8-24 at the Greenhouse Theater Center's Studio 44, 2257 N Lincoln Ave. There is special ticket pricing for Chicago Theater Week. For tickets and more information, please visit greenhousetheater.org.
For more information on this and other plays, see theatreinchicago.com.
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